Riots

[amateur51]

Actually, nor do I, heart face. I live in a rural idyll, but I think I have la raison d'etre to acknowledge what goes on in our haybarns may be replicated elsewhere. You know, London is not the centre of the universe is it? Us yokels still have a lot of issues to deal with which you seem to ignore.

You don't bang on about it like Simon does, dearie - no need to get defensive as I was specifially drawing attention to the profundity of Mr Says' experience

[amateur51]

[QUOTE=Mahlerei;74052]

On the thorny issue of schools and the clip around the ear I think it's shortsighted to think that is/was in any way healthy or character building. Growing up in a (boarding) school system modelled on the British exemplar, where caning and random battery was the norm merely made me resent authority and despise bullies even more. Humiliation was merely the physical manifestation of an uncommunicative and domineering authority structure.

This was exactly my experience in one of Wales' top flight grammar schools in the 1960s, often lauded as 'The Golden Age of Education'.

We have to undestand that the swing of the social pendulum has moved just about as far as it is possible to get now from the situation you describe. It is to be hoped that the pendulum will gradually start on an opposite course and bring us towards a more resonsible society but this time responsibility through persuasion, example and enlightened self-interest, rather than through physical violence and humiliation.

[Mr Pee]

The deeper root cause is surely the inability to enforce discipline or inculcate the need for discipline and social responsibility in parents and would-be parents. While I am, au fond a libertarian, the withdrawal of benefits from the parents of those found guilty of these or other criminal acts could be a start on the right track.

Many people share your views, panjandrum, inluding myself. I have put my name to the petition mentioned below, and as a result that very idea will be debated in Parliament. I do not want my taxes going to subsidise the thieving morons who have so disgraced our country:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-14474429

And I believe Nottingham City Council are considering evicting those convicted from their council houses. Let's hope that idea will be followed up by others.

[amateur51]

Children need limits - it makes them feel secure - and when these are absent, or vague, or changing, the security disappears. Add to this a diet of not really appropriate media output and possibly absent or uncaring parents, and the resulting need for attention can lead to just the sort of behaviour that can result equally from physical brutality.

Show me an unbiddable child and I'll show you a family that is in some way dysfunctional, whether it is a rich one or a poor one in economic terms.

Board members will be shocked to learn that I am in considerable agreement with Simon on this. Unfortunately he has put me on ignore and will never know (unless someone tells hin or quotes from this message

However things start to go awry when you consider a family trying to buy itself a home. Current house prices are such that most cannot be bought affordably by a single person, certainly in the inner cities. And this IS because of Mrs Thatcher, Chancellor Lawson and their crazy pursuit of mass home ownership.

[amateur51]

Many people share your views, panjandrum, inluding myself. I have put my name to the petition mentioned below, and as a result that very idea will be debated in Parliament. I do not want my taxes going to subsidise the thieving morons who have so disgraced our country:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-14474429

And I believe Nottingham City Council are considering evicting those convicted from their council houses. Let's hope that idea will be followed up by others.

Utter madness

[Mahlerei]

Mr Pee

i hope you'll add your name to a petition calling for the imprisonment of those 'thieving morons' who evade tax and cost the country billions in lost revenue.

There's something so ennobling about taking revenge on those who can't fight back.

[amateur51]

Mr Pee

i hope you'll add your name to a petition calling for the imprisonment of those 'thieving morons' who evade tax and cost the country billions in lost revenue.

There's some so ennobling about taking revenge on those who can't fight back.

Spot on, Mahlerei

[french frank]

I have put my name to the petition mentioned below, and as a result that very idea will be debated in Parliament. I do not want my taxes going to subsidise the thieving morons who have so disgraced our country:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-14474429

And I believe Nottingham City Council are considering evicting those convicted from their council houses. Let's hope that idea will be followed up by others.

Well, whether you throw them out on the street, force them into further crime to support themselves or lock them up in prison, your taxes are going to have to support them. And one way or the other, you'll pay for all the damage they cause too. We'd better get our thinking caps on to come up with a more effective way than that of spending our money on them, hadn't we?

[amateur51]

Well, whether you throw them out on the street, force them into further crime to support themselves or lock them up in prison, your taxes are going to have to support them. And one way or the other, you'll pay for all the damage they cause too. We'd better get our thinking caps on to come up with a more effective way than that of spending our money on them, hadn't we?

Agreed, french frank. And a good starting point would be an exercise in talking to and listening to the very people involved, the victims and the perpetrators.

Otherwise we'll be blundering about without a compass.

[Mahlerei]

One wonders, for instance, if one family member is convicted does the entire family lose their home? Even if it includes small children, the elderly or disabled?

Gosh, we live in such enlightened times.

[ahinton]

I'm afraid my only status symbol is the boxed set of Shostakovich's symphs by Kirill Kondrashin and the Moscow Phil on the Aulos label!

Wooo! Well, we - that's to say all of us, including the "yobbos" - ought to be GREEN with envy! Adidas? iPhones? What are they compared to that?!

[Anna]

Oh, I posted that and then deleted, sorry you were quick off the mark to see it.

[Serial_Apologist]

Oh, I posted that and then deleted, sorry you were quick off the mark to see it.

Er...

[Serial_Apologist]

Oh, I posted that and then deleted, sorry you were quick off the mark to see it.

Would you like me to delete my message too, Anna?

[Anna]

Would you like me to delete my message too, Anna?

Yes, thanks, Ducks (behind the sofa)