I now have a necker!

Written by David Heath MP and published in Frome Standard on Thu 24th Apr 2008

As an MP I quite often get given presentations. Probably my least favourite was the proverbial sheep's eye from an arab prince in Qatar. But up until Sunday I had never received a necker. Now not only I but the Mayor and the Town Crier are proud possessors of a friendship necker (which is, for those who don't know, the scarf worn around the neck) from the Frome and District Scouts.

It was lucky that on Sunday afternoon the rain held off for a couple of hours, because the march from the park down to St John's would have been a good deal wetter had it not, but as it was scouts, cubs and beavers of all sizes proudly marched behind their standards and the redoubtable Frome Town Youth Band to the church. The St George's Day service was packed out.

I suppose twenty or thirty years ago you would have bet against the scouting movement reaching its centenary. What with computer games and satellite TV, scouting looked well past its sell-by date for modern kids. That the movement has so successfully re-invented itself and become so popular with today's young people is a quite remarkable achievement.

Apparently recruitment is now as high as it's been for twenty two years. The problem is not attracting young people but finding enough adult leaders. But, certainly in Somerset, they're doing a great job. Here's to the next one hundred years.