"Your country needs you"

GB: Defense Secretary recruits computer gamers

UK Defense Secretary John Healey wants to recruit computer gamers for the military. "If you are a top gamer or programmer: Your country needs you," said Healey at a Labor Party conference in Liverpool. There he announced his intention to recruit more people into the armed forces.

Over the past ten years, more than a million people had applied, but many had given up, partly because the process had taken months, Healey criticized. He spoke of a crisis in recruitment left behind by the previous Conservative government and announced his intention to tackle this.

Outdated requirements abolished
As a first step, Healey said he had abolished 100 outdated regulations that had prevented people from joining the military. According to the British news agency PA, these include cases of hay fever, eczema and acne. The military should also become faster in the application process.

Healey said in Liverpool that he also wanted to set up a direct recruitment channel for people with cyber skills. He told the Sun newspaper that the UK was increasingly exposed to cyber attacks and needed the best talent. The country also has too few drone pilots, the newspaper quoted him as saying.

Healey is sticking to the goal of increasing the UK's defense spending to 2.5 percent of gross domestic product and once again pledged solidarity with Ukraine at the party conference. Ukraine has been defending itself against Russia's war of aggression for two and a half years with the support of other countries.