From the Hemel Hempstead Gazette:Apart from marking another step in the decline and fall of Western civilisation, this story caught my attention because it quotes the Guides' division commissioner, Gill Oxtoby.Carol singing brownies have been banned from a Hemel Hempstead shopping centre because they are considered a health and safety risk.
Little girls from the West Herts guides have sung for pensioners at a special late night Christmas shopping event in Marlowes for more than a decade.
But the centre's managers decided they would not be invited to this year's event because they would obstruct fire escape routes.
When I attended the long-demolished Fields End Primary School in Hemel Hempstead in the 1960s, its headmaster was a Mr Oxtoby. I wonder if by any chance they are related?
Mitre tip: Archbishop Cranmer.
Not at all relevant, but on Wednesday I had supper with, among others, an ex Guides top boss lady. It is so easy to wind her up by noting that girls can and do join the Scouts but boys cannot join the Guides. But then we boys don't like wearing skirts, yet the girls take over everything. And the lady concerned was a teacher before becoming boss Guide.
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