I used to run a Woodcraft Group back in the 90s. I took them rifle shooting with a mate who was a member of a local range. Raised a few eyebrows from quiche eating colleagues but the kids loved it and and some of the older generation of leaders were very supportive.
Given the context (the Beeb interviewing a formerly ELF-connected person, greenscare, Operation Backfire, ag-gag, increasing push in the UK against political activism, redefining terrorism to include pretty much anything, the creation of ‘domestic extremism’, etc), this passage is rather interesting:
Being a bit of a loner when I was a teenager, I found the local ACF a bit of a lifesaver. The two years I was there helped bring me out of my shell and I did learn some useful skills. It helped that all the adults were ex-army so we did get as close an idea as was possible (for a bunch of 13-17 year-olds) of what it would be like being in the army. We had regular camps that cost nothing and because our drill hall was in the black mountains we were out and about on orienteering and fieldcraft skills as often as the welsh weather would allow (and sometimes when it was emphatically NOT allowingOddly enough my time in the air cadets is what made me an anarchist. There's nothing like giving teenagers ranks which allow them to order other teenagers around to illustrate the fact that once people get power they become cunts.
I don't remember being brainwashed though. I was taught lots of useful skills like navigation, radio communications and first aid; all for something like 50p a week in subs that any family could afford. The instructors weren't military personnel, they were civillians who had volunteered specifically to do youth work. Nobody ever tried to convince us to join the military, in fact we got a chance to see a little of what life would be like if we did and that helped make up a lot of kids' minds that no, they definitely didn't want to join the military.
These Bristol nutters did so well with that police training centre, the choice of target and the execution were both perfect; so why are they now taking their extremely vague anger out on youth groups? How much influence do you think a dozen teenagers from Bristol have on NATO policy? Stupid wankers
). 
It ultimately put me off going anywhere near the armed forces but i wouldn't have changed it for anything!
Being a bit of a loner when I was a teenager, I found the local ACF a bit of a lifesaver. The two years I was there helped bring me out of my shell and I did learn some useful skills. It helped that all the adults were ex-army so we did get as close an idea as was possible (for a bunch of 13-17 year-olds) of what it would be like being in the army. We had regular camps that cost nothing and because our drill hall was in the black mountains we were out and about on orienteering and fieldcraft skills as often as the welsh weather would allow (and sometimes when it was emphatically NOT allowing
I also got an early taste of what it was like being passed over for promotion and seeing less competent people put in command positions and then being made to sort out their mess whenever they fucked-up (which was often) and watching them take all the credit. Also having the 'fun' of going up against the junior army on night exercises armed only with clay SA80's while those fuckers had the real thing with blank rounds (what larks!) was a pretty convincing introduction to the terror of battle for a 15-year old. There were lots of other incidents where our activities occasionally bordered on the sadistic
Army Cadet Force.
Not the anarchist communist federation - now called anarchist federation, member of the IAF who the idiot communiques were first pinned on then.
Nope. Not that ACF i'm afraid...
