Leader comment: Girl Guide badges to include actual Moon-walking?

In 1909, a group of girls turned up at a Boy Scout rally and announced they were 'Girl Scouts'. This bold manoeuvre so impressed Lord Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts, that he decided there should be such a movement. And so, the Girl Guides were born.

Girl Guides show off their badges (Picture: Doug Peters/PA)

What exactly Baden-Powell would have made of the Guides’ new badges for mixology – referring in this case to non-alcoholic cocktails, but even so – mindfulness, human rights, going to music festivals, and something called “vlogging” is anyone’s guess.

But perhaps he would have kicked back, sipped a Virgin Mary with just the right amount of Tabasco, and realised the need to move with the times.

As he began to realise just how much things had changed since his day while watching a really very interesting video on YouTube about women’s rights, he may have contemplated what kind of badges might be needed even further in the future.

Robot maintenance, actual Moon-walking, growing potatoes on Mars, and Arctic surfing? Some new badges may take some of us a bit by surprise but with hundreds available there are plenty to choose from.