Scouts return to paramilitary roots....

[armb]

Scouts, at least UK ones, are no longer expected to learn pike rifle staff drill and carry knives.

Meanwhile, in the USA: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/us/14explorers.html

Comments

[keristor.livejournal.com]

"Raise the staff slightly, right arm slightly bent, staff sloping forward to make an angle of about 36 degrees with the vertical."

Is 35 degrees acceptable? How near does "about" have to be? And this is the 'simplified' one. (I'm certain we never had to do any of that when I was in the Boy Scouts...)

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Wait...Scouts in the UK don't carry pocketknives? I mean, I can almost understand that they don't seem to build fires when they camp and stuff, but they don't carry pocketknives?

[keristor.livejournal.com]

Nanny State doesn't allow knives (or forks or spoons, several people have been prosecuted for trying to buy cutlery "under age") to non-adults now, and even adults aren't supposed to carry them in public. If the blade is less than 3 inches, and it is not on an automatic catch to open quickly, then you can probably get away with it if you can produce a pencil or something you need to cut with it, as long as you are over 18.

[armb.livejournal.com]

I think you can still carry a small folding knife if you are under 18, you just can't buy one if you are under 16.

But I was thinking of sheath knives.

And you are still allowed to carry one of those (or an axe, or billhook, or machete) with "reasonable cause", but the days when Scout uniform routinely included a sheath knife on a belt are long gone (and were before my time, as was staff drill). We did build wood fires on camp, and had axes and saws for cutting firewood, and occasionally used knives to whittle new tent pegs.

(There's also now a specific offense of having a knife on school premises, and I was in the school Scout troop. There are exceptions for use for work or for educational purposes, so some Scout use would be okay, but not routine carry just in case it was useful:
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1996/ukpga_19960026_en_1#l1g4)

[armb.livejournal.com]

P.S. A summary of relevent law: http://www.bkcg.co.uk/guide/law.html

[keristor.livejournal.com]

I had my own axe by the time I was 14, and was trained how to use it safely (I chopped down a tree with it a year or so later). We used personal knives at school to sharpen pencils (not pens, though; we had dip-in pens but they used metal nibs). I don't think our Scout uniform required a sheath knife but it was certainly allowed at camp or on hikes.