This year’s Queen’s Speech was an obvious and shameless electioneering event by a government on the way out. Most of these bills have little or no chance of being law – and a number of them seem to purely be attempts to bind the next government with various “targets” which Labour want to enshrine in law just so that they can paint the Conservatives in unflattering lights.
But there is one bill in this that is a good bill, and one that must become law as soon as possible: the Flood …

World Scouting Jamborees – the name being derived from “jambo”, the Swahili term for “hello” – of which there have been 21 since 1920 the latest held in the Uk in 2007, may be coming to an end. The new ISA (Independent Safeguarding Authority) requirements may well mean that Jamborees in the UK are no longer able to go ahead.
This is because Jamborees naturally rely on a large amount of support from Scout Leaders from across the world – and these leaders won’t have been through the ISA system. Which …

Yesterday I posted about the Commons authorities banning Cub Scouts from protesting in the House of Commons – simply because they’re not old enough to vote. And I said

If John Bercow does not overturn this ban, he will have failed his first real test as Speaker. And he will have encouraged the demise of democracy in this country.

But Bercow must have read my post – because he has overturned this ban. The Cubs may not be able to vote now, but they will do in the future. If they have …

Cub Scouts, 8-10 year olds, have been banned from protesting in the House of Commons – because they aren’t old enough to vote. The Cubs (and the rest of the Scout Movement) want to protest against the rain tax which threatens to severely curtail the activities of many groups as it cripples them financially.
Which annoys me is the fact that MPs are always saying how they want to listen to the “yoofs” – but whenever they have the chance, they never do so. Martin Slater hit the nail on …

Guess who wins? The Scout Association!

An advert showing a scout leader as a nerd without friends was pulled by a phone company after complaints from the Scout Association…
The association said it had been “deluged” with complaints from members over the ad, which shows a scout leader as grumpy, balding and with glasses…
On Monday Phones4u apologised, pulled the ad, and said no offence was meant. (BBC)

Of course, being a Scout Leader, this is the sort of thing that annoyed me a lot, as I wrote over on my Scouting Blog. It …

Politics and Scouting isn’t something usually mixes very much – or at least shouldn’t. After all, the Scout Association is a non-political charity. However, the World Organisation of the Scout Movement (WOSM) has released their Purple Manifesto for the EU elections titled “For a Better World, For a Better Europe“.
The manifesto asks the EU Parliament to achieve six main goals over the next five years:

Empower Volunteers

Better Social Inclusion of Young People

Strengthen Global Partnerships for Development

Remove obstacles to Scouting

Make employability of young people a priority in European Union (EC)

Integrate young people …

The Scout Association have announced that the person taking over from Peter Duncan to become the 10th Chief Scout is adventurer Bear Grylls – the youngest ever Chief Scout.
This is brilliant news. Bear (real name Edward) is a great role model, and represents the true principles of Scouting – focused on the basics of outdoor adventure and having fun. He will be a great ambassador for Scouting, not only as he has spent a good number of years in the movement as a young person – as a Cub, Scout …

I’m going to Cadbury World with my Scout Group!

Today I shall be taking part in a parade and service to celebrate St George, with the Beavers, Cubs and Scouts or my group and the entire District. The about-a-thousand of us are going to be parading in full uniform through Watford, flags flying.
This year my group is leading the parade and providing the main part of the service in the church – our theme being “international scouting”.
But why do Scouts celebrate St George’s Day? Because St George is the Patron Saint of Scouting. Baden-Powell chose St George as the …

An important part of childhood is learning what is safe and what isn’t, and how to minimise such risks – but still take them. As Sir Ranulph Fiennes says:

Throughout my life, taking measured risks has proved of great interest to me. There have been times when taking some form of risk was the only way to overcome an obstacle and giving up would have been the only alternative.
Another way of putting it – as with many avenues of life, it’s only through taking a bit of a risk that you …