I have been revisiting The History of Youth Work in Europe, the remarkable series developed over a decade through the partnership between the European Commission and the Council of Europe. The seventh and final volume is co-edited by my good friend Howard Williamson, alongside Tanya Basarab, and it is one of those books that prompts…
“Let’s go to Wittenham Clumps,” suggested Mark. He was right. If you are going to watch the most significant solar eclipse visible from Britain for more than 25 years, there can be few better places than one of Oxfordshire’s most familiar landmarks, looking out across the county from a hilltop that people have been climbing…
Over the last couple of days, my inbox has taken an interesting turn. I have received a growing number of emails asking Cats Protection to campaign for the mandatory neutering of owned pet cats. They come from different people and addresses, but the text is identical. This is clearly a coordinated campaign, although despite some…
Local government reorganisation is, by its nature, a conversation that can very quickly become dominated by structures. Which councils will exist? Where will the boundaries fall? Who will be responsible for what? How will services transfer? What will the new governance arrangements look like? All of those questions matter enormously. Here in Oxfordshire and West…
Today, 8 August, is International Cat Day. Which seems as good an excuse as any to write about Blenheim. Not that I generally need much of an excuse. Living with Blenheim is one of the great joys of my life, but it is also a useful daily reminder that loving an animal and understanding an…
There is something profoundly captivating about standing a few metres from a lion. It is not simply the sheer beauty of the animal, nor even the extraordinary power that seems to ripple through every movement. It is the unmistakable recognition that, despite millions of years of evolution and very different lives, the lion and the…
There is something rather reassuring about arriving at a large Scout camp. Before you have spoken to anyone, before you have seen the programme or unfolded a map, you know roughly what you will find. Leaders wrestling with logistics. Young people laughing, building, exploring and making new friends. Somewhere, someone looking for a missing mallet….
Buckle up. This is an essay, rather than a short read… The Scarf Every year on 1 August I open a drawer containing rather more Scout scarves than any sensible person ought to own and spend a few moments deciding which one to wear. It is never quite as straightforward a decision as it sounds….
Yesterday evening I had the pleasure of visiting WINGS, and I drove home feeling reminded why events like this matter so much. For those who do not know it, WINGS is one of the UK’s largest international Scout and Guide camps. Every few years it brings together thousands of young people from across Britain and…
I have spent a good part of my working life travelling, working with people from other countries and, from time to time, trying to explain Britain to them. That is not always easy. The country we describe abroad is often tidier than the one in which we actually live. We talk about parliamentary democracy, ancient…
