The Armed Forces Covenant is a useful metric when considering the obligations that the government should have to those who serve. However, since the covenant entered political discourse around the turn of the millennium, it is clear that it often remains a statement of intent rather than a statement of action. It would come as a surprise to many that the covenant offers no legal backing for military personnel. In this year’s general election only the SNP considered this matter important enough to include in our manifesto a commitment to give an armed forces representative body a statutory footing. Their defence forces comprise a large number of reservists serving alongside permanent personnel.

Source: The Times October 08, 2017 23:03 UTC