Rescuing
Democracy in the United Kingdom from our current Elected
Dictatorship
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Spin, not
face-to-face confrontations with the voters, is the Government's
chosen method of communication. Ordinary
people are dangerous. Ordinary people might ask a question
which throws a politician 'off message'; the Cabinet member
might reveal himself or herself to be a human being like
us, and not a programmed android. Worse still, he or she
might tell the truth.
Ann Leslie - Daily Mail, September
16, 2004
Discipline?
We can only learn it from our parents
I
was one of the original London Teddy Boys. When we first
appeared, the police and the media accused us of every sort
of mayhem and mischief, though the reality was very different.
We were, in fact, just a bunch of pasty-faced youths who
wore Edwardian-style fashions and hung about on street corners
trying to look harder than we were. We lived in the shadow
of fathers and uncles who had fought a world war. Many of
us, in turn, went on to do National Service.
After
grammar school, I became a long-serving officer in the London
Fire Brigade, the father of three, stepfather of four, and
I have an exemplary record. My poor, but devoted, parents
made sure I had a first-class education and disciplined
lifestyle.
These
days, it's the turn of the 'feral' youths in 'hoodies' and
baseball caps to take the stick. But if they lack the discipline,
respect and values of my 'yob' generation, it's because
they are the products of substandard, anything goes parenting.
That, in turn, is the fault of lazy, self-serving politicians
and a society obsessed with materialism.
The
young, with their half-formed minds, have too much to say
and too great an influence. Society
has become lazy and apathetic in its attitude towards directing
teenagers to civilised behaviour. We have betrayed our greatest
asset - our young - and we must live with it.
Respect?
My generation had it in spades. Teddy Boys or not, we knew
our parents had earned it the hard way through war, courage
and sacrifice. We can't start another world war to gain
the respect of the young, but wee can fight a system that's
destroying the credibility of parenting, marriage and the
cornerstone of civilised society - discipline.
We
should stop whining about the old days and shying away from
harsh decisions. The young weren't around in the old days
- they know no different. But we were, and it's time we
knocked a few parental and political heads together and
stopped betraying all those magnificent people who gave
their todays for our tomorrows. John Barker, Angmering,
W. Sussex - Daily Mail, May 26, 2005.
Who's
keeping the peace?
What
has become of keeping the Queen's peace? Policemen once
swore to uphold and maintain that peace when they were appointed
constables. A breach of the Queen's peace was - and, I believe,
still is - a criminal offence. Why have none of the louts
and yobs who have made life hell for so many of her people
not been prosecuted for having, at the very least, breached
the Queen's peace.
Letter
from David Bourne, Winchelsea, E. Sussex, Daily Mail, May
26, 2005.
Cowboy
Britain
Watching
a Western on TV, I realised nothing much has changed. Half-a-dozen
gun en wandered into town and caused mayhem because the
mild-mannered sheriff saw no need to get tough. After a
few killings, the sheriff, in despair, yelled: "Why?".
A gunman replied: "Because there's no law here to stop
me, so I can."
Doesn't
that just sum up our country today, Sheriff Blair?
Letter
from J. Davies, Colwyn Bay, Denbighshire - Daily Mail, May
26, 2005.
|
Feral
gangs who rule our streets
By
Michael Seamark - Daily Mail, May 18, 2005
A
top policeman painted a horrifying picture yesterday of communities
terrorised by gangs of 'feral youths'. Chief Superintendent David
Baines said drunken and abusive yobs intimidated entire neighborhoods,
forcing law-abiding families to live in fear.
He
said the gangs 'don't give a damn about the police or the criminal
justice system' and their parents made no attempt to control them.
On the day Tony Blair's attempt to restore 'respect' to society
was highlighted in the Queen's Speech, Mr Baines was appealing
for witnesses to the brutal attack on father-of-four Phil Carroll,
48.
"These
people are feral by nature, having little control over
their behaviour and having little responsibility for their
actions and having little parental control over they way
they live their lives."
Chief
Supt Baines , - Grtr Manchester Police
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Mr
Carroll, who is fighting for his life in hospital, was battered
to the ground outside his home in Salford, Greater Manchester,
after confronting teenagers who threw a stone at his car. Mr Baines
said of the assault: "It is part of life for these people.
These people are feral by nature, having little control over their
behaviour and having little responsibility for their actions and
having little parental control over the way they live their lives.
"They
are not concerned about respect, or their responsibilities to
anybody, other than their own familial ties. The criminal justice
system holds no fear for them. Their parents have been through
it as well and kit holds no fear for them, either. The parents
don't challenge them about their criminal behaviour. I have spoken
to parents who are unconcerned that their 14-year-old child has
been arrested for a serious assault or robbery. They are unconcerned
that they have been locked up in custody and they are unconcerned
that they are going to court. Indeed,
it's just part of their life skills, where to be sent to prison
or Borstal is just part of growing up."
He
warned: "This is a national problem. Today it is Salford
but tomorrow it will be somewhere else." Mr Carroll, who
suffered serious head injuries, has undergone two operations and
remains in a critical condition. His wife, Jean, 44, and their
children were at his bedside last night.
Downing
Street insisted yesterday that new law and order measures, including
curbs on gun crime, knives and drink-related violence, reinforced
Mr Blair's 'commitment to generating a greater sense of mutual
respect in society'.
Greater
Manchester Police have cut the number of violent assaults in Salford
over the past year by targeting the area's worst families. But
chief Supt. Baines admitted: "We have gangs of young people
with alcohol hanging around on street corners being abusive, swearing,
intimidating and causing trouble. They then go on to damage property
or, as we have seen with Mr Carroll, to commit a very vicious
and unprovoked attack."
He
added: "This was an appalling attack on a man wanting to
bring his family up in Salford, proud to be in Salford, and the
sort of person we want in Salford." Mr Baines said many people
must have information about the attack but were scared to come
forward.
Police
yesterday issued a new photograph of Mr Carroll, a project engineer
and building site manager posing proudly with his children five
days before the attack. He had taken his family to a country pub
for a farewell Sunday lunch for his eldest son, Wesley, 21, who
was about to leave on a year-long world tour. But on Friday, as
Wesley arrive in Australia on the first stage, he was told about
the attack on his father and flew home immediately.
Mr
Carroll had just finished working on his car with his brother
John, 34, when he was attacked. There had been an altercation
with two teenage youths and a girl - all wearing the hooded tops
recently banned by a major shopping centre - in an alleyway near
his terrace home. As the two brothers prepared to take the car
for a test drive, one of the youths threw a stone which hit it.
Mr
Carroll got out to remonstrate and both youths punched him. He
fell, smashing the back of his head on the road. The attack happened
some six miles from Urmston, where 'desperate' teacher Linda Walker
fired an air gun as she confronted youths she believed had made
her life a misery - and was later jailed.
Councillor
Karen Garrido, leader of the Tory group on Salford City Council,
said last night: "This is an absolutely appalling incident.
I really do not know where things are going in today's society.
We need to stand up as a community against these yobs. If a decent
family man cannot go outside his own home and warn off yobs there
is something wrong. We need to reclaim our streets which are now
being ruled by louts who are terrifying the very core of our society."
Norman
Brennan, of the Victims of Crime Trust, said: " How many
more innocent people have to fight for their lives because of
antisocial behaviour? The government have made so many promises
- it is about time they acted upon what they talk about. This
attacking of innocent people must be stopped of Phil Carroll will
not be the last person to end up in hospital because of this yob
culture tearing our communities apart."
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