In 1984, I was Middlesbrough’s most eager Brownie. Such was my enthusiasm, I happily chomped my way through raw potatoes after an older girl, having failed to light the campfire, ordered us to tell Brown Owl: ‘This is how we like them!’ That was sisterhood, and I was deeply committed.

So imagine my horror upon discovering, a few years ago, that Brownies and Guides were now admitting boys. Not the rough and tough fun kind who probably could have got a fire started, no problem at all. But the drippy ones who like to wear dresses and call themselves girls. I was horrified, but not surprised. The organisation’s woke capture became clear when the promise I made, ‘to do my duty to God’, was replaced by the insipid pledge ‘to be true to myself and develop my beliefs’.

This updated promise comes hand in hand with Girlguiding’s inclusive mission ‘to make guiding a safe space for LGBTQ members’ by ‘attending Pride events all over the UK’. As such, I am not getting carried away in celebrating this week’s announcement that ‘trans girls and young women, and others not recorded........

© The Spectator