‘Insult to Queen’ as Guides close offices overseas
GIRLGUIDING UK bosses have been accused of ‘insulting the memory’ of the organisation’s former patron the late Queen for pressing ahead with shutting down their overseas operations.
Former Armed Forces Minister Sir Mike Penning also suggested the charity would not have taken ‘these lamentable decisions if the late Queen was still alive and still serving as their patron’.
Earlier this year, the charity’s trustees axed the British Girlguiding Overseas (BGO) body, which operated across 36 countries and had more than 2,000 members. It told outfits in the British Overseas Territories that they will learn their fate in the New Year.
The organisation says the cutbacks are for financial and operational reasons.
However, more than 19,600 people have signed a petition calling on the trustees to ‘re-examine their decision’. And former Grenadier Guardsman and serving Tory MP Sir Mike and other MPs from across the political divide have signed a House of Commons motion warning that the overseas closures ‘will have a detrimental impact on young women and communities’ within each Overseas Territory and across British military bases overseas, where the children of Service families have been able to become Girl Guides.
Last night, Sir Mike told The Mail on Sunday how Girlguiding centres were ‘vitally important for the children of our Armed Forces personnel serving overseas’. He said: ‘Yes, they were few in number compared to the number of Girl Guides in the UK. But if you are growing up far away from home, it is so important to have the support, guidance and discipline that being involved in Girlguiding brings.
‘At the very least, they offered a little bit of home to youngsters being brought up so far away.’ The Hemel Hempstead MP said that ‘shutting down the Girlguiding centres in our overseas bases and Overseas Territories is nothing short of an insult to the memory of our late Queen’.
In another move to try to protect Girlguiding overseas, last month Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle – who has privately expressed his ‘shock and surprise’ at the charity’s decisions – convened a meeting involving Girlguiding UK leaders and representatives of the Ministry of Defence, and Foreign & Commonwealth Office. But he then received a letter from Girlguiding bosses warning him that their ‘tough decisions’ should not be subject to ‘political interference, perceived or otherwise’.
Last night, Girlguiding UK said that the ‘difficult decision’ to close BGO was based ‘on the organisation’s future ability to run an overseas operation in 36 countries and territories, each with separate laws and regulations’.
It added: ‘We have always been clear that the way forward will be different for girls and volunteers depending on which country they live in. British Overseas Territories have had different options available to them because of the way guiding associations in those areas are run.’
Sir Lindsay declined to comment.
‘Vital for the children of Armed Forces personnel’