Scouts Question Time

This November, Liam Cutler from 1^st Northallerton Explorers travelled down to Winchester to participate in Scouts Question Time. The event aimed to encourage scouts to play an active role in politics and the community and stand up for their rights as young people.

The event was split into 2 parts: the first part was workshops, based on campaigning, debating and parliament; the second part was a panel debate, where topics could be debated with key decision makers and leaders.

There were 4 workshops in all; Parliament, Coalition forming, debating and campaigning. These were designed to make politics interesting and engaging, while teaching skills that would be useful in a variety of circumstances. For instance, during the coalition forming workshop, the explorers learned how to reach a fair compromise; and also how to communicate your points of view clearly.

After the workshop, was the panel debate. On the panel was Jeremy Moulton (Councillor, Southampton City Council); Seb Meil (Leader, Winchester SU); Liam Preston (Chair of the British Youth Council) and Chris Huhne MP (Lib Dem, Eastleigh, Minister for Energy and Climate Change). Topics debated included public transport, the economy, and tuition fees. The debate was engaging – with a lot of interesting points being made, both from the ‘floor’ and the pannelists.

When asked what the highlight of the day was, Liam replied “I enjoyed the panel debate – Its always good to see an MP under pressure, which all Explorers there made sure, as well as Liam and Seb”

Liam takes a keen interest in politics and is a Youth Councillor, Member of Youth Parliament (MYP) for North Yorkshire, and is involved in campaigns on issues such as transport. “It’s good that the scouts are now doing things like this – I know how much of a benefit events like this can be as well as being great fun!”

There is another Scouts QT proposed for February. If anyone is interested, details will be announced shortly.