MP plans to boost forces support

Discrimination against servicemen and women in military uniform is to be made a criminal offence, under plans accepted by the government.

A new law was one of 40 recommendations in a study led by Labour MP Quentin Davies into ways to improve relations between the military and the public.

The move follows high-profile incidents of discrimination, including an army officer being refused entry to the Harrods department store in London.

Armed Forces minister Bob Ainsworth said the government was now engaged in discussing how the law could be introduced.

"We've all heard of the instances of military people being discriminated against," he said.

"I do not believe that they are widespread, but I do believe they are totally and utterly unacceptable."

Davies' report, which was commissioned by the prime minister, also recommended that troops be encouraged to wear military dress on all appropriate occasions in public.

And Ainsworth confirmed that that government was considering the proposal for a new armed forces day, to be marked with a public holiday.

He said: "We do want to take forward the proposal to recognise our armed forces. Whether that is a separate bank holiday of itself, whether it's a weekend, is something we could consider.

Among the report's other recommendations were an increase in the number of state school students joining cadet forces.

There are currently 60 cadet forces in comprehensive schools England and Wales, compared with 200 in grammar and independent schools.

Davies told the Observer the proposal had the enthusiastic backing of Brown.

Local authorities could also be given more responsibility for ensuring local units returning from the frontline are given homecoming parades.

Davies told BBC Radio 4's Today programme his inquiry had found a "divergence" between the military and civilians which had grown up over the past generation.

"What our study does reveal is that there is a very large degree of support, an enormously widespread support, in this country for the principle of our armed forces.

"People have an instinctive feeling of admiration and respect for them.

"But as time has gone by, [there is] less and less understanding or direct contact. In the days of national service and after the Second World War, almost every family had someone who served in uniform. That's no longer the case.

"We are looking at the whole area of the contact between the military and civilian life. If you ask me if the military became a caste unto themselves, cut off from society, would that be a good thing either for them or for the general public, I would say it would be a very bad thing."