Lord Baden-Powell’s mustachios must be twirling in his grave. Out goes the solemn oath inspired by the Scout founder: “On my honour, I promise that I will do my best to do my duty to God and to the Queen, to help other people and to keep the Scout law.” In comes a shiny new flexi-pledge so that non-Christian believers can swear by Allah if Muslim or to their Dhama if Hindu. Atheists can promise to live life in “good moral standing” while republican Cubs and Beavers can pledge “their duty to the state and the laws of the state” (hmm, sounds a bit sinister). If that isn’t inclusive enough for the most right-on parent, Scout leaders are prepared to negotiate a form of words that satisfies honour all round.

But let’s not get our woggles in a twist. The movement must adapt or die. Founded in the wake of the Boer war, in which Baden-Powell distinguished himself in the defence of Mafeking, the scouting movement had its anti-imperialist critics from the start. Political radicals at home even founded their own socialist scouting imitations. Critics have long derided the stuffiness of scouting and sniggered about the motives of the adults who supervise the groups. So there’s nothing wrong in changing a few words to make life easy for post-imperial immigrant peoples or those with a tender conscience. With apologies to B-P’s pal, Rudyard Kipling, “East is East and West is West, the twain shall meet”.

Still, how far will modernising go? Since satanists are to be given rights under the government’s absurd new anti-blasphemy laws, Scouts and Cubs could demand to pledge allegiance to the devil or, following the example of many adults in the recent census, the Jedi religion or the Sith lords of Star Wars. Still, at least the Scouts have been spared the Tories. As any Notting Hill moderniser knows, you’ve got to go tieless these days. Surely a Tory-modernised Scout movement would abolish woggles, hats and uniforms too. Old gentlemen as well as ladies would be helped across the road, compulsorily, and as for scoutmaster jokes, just don’t go there.