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Safety checks threaten Scout jamborees

PLYMOUTH, U.K. – It was just over 100 years ago that a group of boys set up camp on a wooded island on the eastern fringes of the Westcountry – and in so doing started a vast movement that would become popular in almost every country on the planet.

Now, after a century of character-building and good clean fun, the innocent sights, sounds and smells of a Boy Scout camp may be coming to an end.

The proud tradition which sees the Westcountry hosting dozens of Scout and Guide camps every year and which allows Britain to stage major international jamborees could be under threat from new controversial vetting rules, according to the Scout Association.

Safety checks threaten Scout jamborees

Safety checks threaten Scout jamborees
Western Morning News
The subsequent publishing of Scouting for Boys inspired the beginnings of the Scout Movement. Now all those campfire songs and good clean fresh air could ...

The right direction

By Jo Wadham, The National

ABU DHABI – Perhaps – given the suffragette movement that reached its peak in England at the time – Lord Baden-Powell should have expected something out of the ordinary to happen at the first Boy Scout rally at Crystal Palace in 1909.

Madeline Peacock, 7, waits to ask a question during a Brownies meeting in Abu Dhabi. Ryan Carter/The National

The previous year, the British Army lieutenant-general had effectively started the Boy Scout movement with the publication of his book Scouting for Boys. Girls read it, too, and started trying the activities described in it. One brave group crashed the rally and, asking for “something for the girls”, demanded to become Girl Scouts.

Lord Baden-Powell asked his sister, Agnes, to adapt his book for girls and, a year later, the Girl Guides movement was formed. One hundred years on, more than 10 million girls and women are involved in Guiding worldwide, and plans are afoot across the globe to celebrate the centenary. In Abu Dhabi, Rainbows, Brownies, Guides and Senior Section members will celebrate with a party tomorrow at Sparkys in Khalidiyah Mall.