On October 18th the Scouts at Four Oaks Methodist Church hosted a mini Question time session where they interviewed their local MP, Andrew Mitchell.

The Scouts are all working towards their Media and World challenge badges. To achieve these badges they needed to learn more about the issues affecting their community and interview a locally well-know person. What better way to combine these two requirements than by inviting and question your local MP.

To prepare for this evening, the Scouts have been using their scouting sessions to think of questions they could ask. They even had one of their leaders stand in for the MP so that they could practice asking questions.

During the evening, the Scouts asked Andrew Mitchell questions about his work in parliament, his view on Brexit, other recent political events and what he learned from being a Scout. There were also discussions about global warming, housing and the perception of groups of young people in public spaces.

Andrew Mitchell stressed that young people can be involved by contacting their MP when they have issues they feel concerned about. It was great to see that one of the Scouts had already done so and now had an opportunity to discuss his letter about cycling in Sutton Park, with his MP in person.

The Scouts were also privileged to observe Andrew Mitchell giving a live on air interview to Channel 4 regarding the situation in Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

In the feedback session, the Scouts commented that they now feel that politics is a lot closer to them than they imagined.

Alco Jensema, leader of the 5th Sutton Coldfield Scouts, commented that Scouting is all about preparing young people for life. Our politicians have a big impact on their life and it is important for them to understand their role and how everyone can influence the process themselves. It was great meeting our local MP and I would like to thank Andrew Mitchell for his openness with the scouts and to councillor Alex Yip in helping to organise the evening.