21 May - Scouting suspicions; Statistics and Singh
I first became aware of
Bexley’s Civic Awards in 2011 when I turned up early
for a Full Council meeting and found something else going on. I had no idea what
it was until the Mayor became all stroppy because the newcomers didn’t clap loudly
enough. We had inadvertently barged into a Civic Awards ceremony. Succeeding
Mayors have shown more sense and held separate meetings in relative privacy.
Last Friday another 39 volunteers were honoured, 24 in the Adults
Group. Among them was Karen from Citizen’s Advice; Alf from the Air Cadets, Maureen who manages a Youth Group
and Sharon who inspires children. David runs an Allotment Association,
Andrei champions hockey teams in the borough along with musical inspiration Julie. Dominating the list is Derek, Lee, Richard, Dawn, Nicholas, Adam, Lynn, Andy,
Vivienne, Daniel, Kirsty, Timothy, Alison and Chase
representing local Scouts; Two Karens, a Sue and an Alison from Girl Guiding and
Lucy who runs the Brownies. Robert Baden Powell would be proud.
Additionally Ilkay and Rauf were given Outstanding Achievement awards for service to the Turkish Community. The full list may be seen at
https://www.bexley.gov.uk/about-council/recognition-awards/civic-recognition-awards.
As I understand it, nominations are vetted by the current and former Mayor
which this year would be Ahmet Dourmoush and James Hunt. Ahmet is a big wig in
the Turkish School in Blackfen and James is top dog in South East London scouting;
the Air Cadets too. Both excelling in their chosen fields as far as I can see.
On the other hand it looks to be a bit incestuous, something I have been
reminded of before, but more likely it is nothing more than
statistics. Two Turks is neither here nor there out of 39 awards and one might
guess they took a leading role in
the earthquake relief work last year.
Scouting is by far and away the biggest youth movement
locally and probably nationally too and is run by huge numbers of volunteers. Each year more
of them will qualify for an award nomination
and the number will swamp any similar group. Are there any other similar groups in Bexley?
Except when
Mr.
Singh was given an award Bonkers has not reported on them but it is nothing
new for the Scouts to collect the bulk of the awards. No one else seems to be very
interested in making nominations, they have got into the habit of putting names
forward while hardly anyone else has cottoned on.
Maybe that is a reason for abandoning the awards scheme or maybe more people
should get involved, but given the nomination rules, Scouts will outnumber Singhs, and thank goodness for that.