SCOUTS’ HONOUR

27-04-2007

Young men and women marching up and down the street dressed in uniform? It’s not exactly cool, is it? And others have even seen darker motives in the scouting movement. Pete Millington, though, admits to being a convert.

Last Sunday, more than 5,000 members of the Scouting Association in Birmingham gathered in the underpass under Five Ways traffic island and were led by the movement’s (and the country’s) patron saint, St George, resplendent in knight’s regalia and riding gallantly upon his white steed, as they marched en masse past the clubs and pubs of Broad Street to rally and celebrate in Centenary Square

Whilst the Association in Birmingham generally celebrates St George’s Day with an annual district march, today was a unique occasion involving the whole city by way of marking 100 years of Scouting

Amidst a great carnival atmosphere and frequent (though always hearty) cries of “oggy oggy oggy!” the six administrative districts and 98 individual scout groups of the city came together for a rare opportunity to remind those good folk of Brummagem who don’t spend their evenings waiting outside church halls and wooden huts at pack dismissal time, that 100 years on …they are still going strong

As a father of two boys in the movement, one in Beavers and one in Cubs, I was happy to forsake a home match at Villa Park to support not only my sons, but the fine people who give up their spare time to occupy and educate our children week in and year out

But what struck me about today was that in spite of the huge turn out of the city’s young people, which meant closing down Broad Street for some two or three hours and filling Centenary Square with happy, well-behaved young people - the rest of the city seemed oblivious

Having been on the St Patrick’s Day parade for several years running, the contrast was interesting. There were no mass crowds of on-lookers lining the streets, no radio cars, no celebrities on double decker buses, no high profile marketing - just five thousand smart looking young people with a couple of thousand thoroughly decent adult volunteers

This isn’t of course a knock at St Patrick’s Day because I personally know a lot of the people who work very hard, mainly on a voluntary basis, to make that event work and the importance of that event to the city’s Irish (and in my own case Anglo-Irish community) - but it just saddens me that there is an apathy about celebrating good things about English culture, especially when those things are concerned with people giving up their time to keep today’s young people away from the evils of this world and into stuff that is healthy and educational

Is it that Scouting is unfashionable? Or are we English still confused about our identity? Are we uncomfortable about flag waving and the associations that both the flag of St George and the beginnings of the Scout movement have with colonialism and empire?

As Scouting enters it’s second century, must it remain something that the modern world sniggers at or scorns whilst only those of us who experience it’s benefits to young people at first hand actually appreciate it’s huge social value?

Today I observed young people of all ages, drug and alcohol free, having a great time. I saw young Muslim girls in Scout and Guide uniform, I saw cub scouts of all colours and nationalities, I saw disabled scouts and heard voices denoting every social class. If we want an example of either the cultural melting pot or the mosaic of social diversity - here it is in the city’s Scout movement

Surely it’s time for society to take another look at the Scout movement and start embracing and supporting it? A lot of water has gone under the bridge since Baden-Powell founded the movement in the wake of the 2nd Boer.

Scouting is a modern movement which educates, empowers, integrates and occupies young people (in my own opinion as someone trained in youth and community work) better than the professional youth service

Scouting is the future