SCOUTS ASSOCIATION RIGHTLY ON THE WARPATH ABOUT CUTS

The Scouts Association  did a grand job last week of highlighting the impact the current Government;s cuts are having because of the increase in rents they are now facing from local councils. They have set up a website Don't Raise Our Rents and I would urge everyone to sign it. Another group not prepared to stand by and let boys/men be shut down.

This is not the place to discuss government cuts from a party political perspective but it seems clear from the campaign that local councils (as distinct from national government but connected nonetheless) have no feel for the importance of scouting, the impact it has in providing organised discipline for boys and the opportunity for gaining skills and learning the importance of teamwork and camaraderie.

When so mucc  being taken away from boys so they are left with a feminised education system that fails them, a family court system that shuts out their fathers and the constant bombardment of boys/men = bad, girls/women = good, the scouting movement gives them shelter and some hope.

Girls are also welcome to the scouting movement (it's not Cancer Research's Race for Life!) which of course is a good thing and something I am sure rankles with the feminist fundamentalists.

We need an increase in the scouting movement especially in inner cities but it seems that local councils are not interested about continuing to support them. How can the government on one hand say it believes in the Big Society and then see the Scouts Movement decimated in such a way.

A conspiracy theorist (which I am) would suggest that because the Scouting Movement is largely made up of boys, and as we all know they are the disposable sex, this is why it is happening. Councils would think twice if they aware undermining the Guides movement.

Posted by Skimmington

Media coverage - PA, Guardian, BBC, Daily Mail

Comments

[JOHN TAYLOR]

Err, err - a certain well-known Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, is well know to have stated: There is no such thing as "Society". So, how can "The Big Society" ever exist?

[mananon]

Hi all. I'm new to this site, so I'll keep it brief.

I know the Scouts were once the Boy Scouys, but started admitting girls some years ago. On the other hand the Guides are still very much the Girl Guides, and as far as I know are not set to admit boys any time soon.

Equality, anyone?

[Groan]

Similarly for the YMCA and YWCA there is a pattern of segregation of girls while boys organisations open their doors. Readers may recall that recently the leadership of the YWCA came clean and admitted they were not Christian and about campaigning for "rights". Meanwhile the YMCA continues to do good stuff for young men and women. The proliferation of organisations which have left behind their original practical purpose, Amnesty and Oxfam to embrace the rather easier role of campaigners is a feature of the age.

[Jon]

John Taylor: Thatcher has often also been misquoted and taken out of context. Tell me, from the full quote below, do you REALLY think that what Thatcher meant was that there is LITERALLY no such thing as society?

"I think we have gone through a period when too many children and people have been given to understand "I have a problem, it is the Government's job to cope with it!" or "I have a problem, I will go and get a grant to cope with it!" "I am homeless, the Government must house me!" and so they are casting their problems on society and who is society? There is no such thing! There are individual men and women and there are families and no government can do anything except through people and people look to themselves first. It is our duty to look after ourselves and then also to help look after our neighbour and life is a reciprocal business and people have got the entitlements too much in mind without the obligations" - Margaret Thatcher

[Groan]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1377012/More-girls-join-Scouts-boys-time.html?ITO=1490
This recent article shows the positive aspect of the scouts welcoming girls and in the Guides response the odd thinking of many women's groups. It seems the Guides need to preserve their all female composition to protect them from the competition from boys. This theme seems to run through other all female groups. Of course the question is if the sexes are equal why would females need this safe space. On a more worrying note the Guides, or rather their head office, seems to be getting more involved in feminist campaigns notably equal pay and DV.