Robertson Davies, one of Canada’s best known novelists, once commented about his homeland: “Some countries you love. Some countries you hate. Canada is a country you worry about.” Well, judging by the weekend I have just enjoyed, he needn’t worry now. From Thursday to Sunday, over 150 young people, aged between 14 and 25, gathered…
To Brockley today to speak at a lunchtime meeting of the Greenwich, Lewisham and Bexley Chamber of Commerce. Lovely people and loads of interest in the work of the Career Academy Foundation. But the meeting was more noteable for its location than my speech. It was held at the legendary Rivoli Ballroom. Stepping out of…
We’ve had the ‘silent generation’, ‘baby boomers’, ‘Generation X’ and the Millennials. Each generation has its own characteristics, behaviours and attitudes, developed through the experiences of its formative years And now there’s a new generation, – the Twenty-First Century’s first generation, born after 1996. These are the children and young people we’re working now to…
Today, colleagues at the Scout Association, through a series of letters and emails sent around the globe, announced that I am to be their candidate for election to the World Scout Committee. The election is to be held in July, in South Korea. World Scouting has been living through a number of challenges in the…
This morning I stood in silence at a village remembrance service. Tonight, my Facebook wall is full of pictures of those friends, many in Scout or Cadet uniform, who also chose to pause and remember. Those pictures are not just from my own country, but from all over the Commonwealth. Conscripts and volunteers from across…
On the wall of my study hangs an old cutting from the Lichfield Mercury, dated 11 November 1988. The headline reads: “Breaking out!” The page is yellowed now, the photographs are grainy and the print has faded. But it remains one of the things on my wall that means the most to me. The article…
