They're both wrong

The affair of the poor lady from Leicestershire, Ms. Pilkington, and her daughter, has produced the expected responses.

The acting chief constable is desperately sorry. What else could he say? He is the head of an organisation which obeys diktats from Westminster, rather than local people, but he is not alone in that. As the trouble goes back over many years, he can hardly be blamed personally.

G.Brown will make his "make or break" speech today and promises to act tough on the matter of ASBOs. His neglect of the Blair concept means that he can hardly blame anyone else.

So we shall have a brief period while police and councils "act tough" on juvenile offending, perhaps even threatening prison, until they discover that prisons are full.

What happened to the other half of Blair's promise - tough on the causes of crime?
- communities are powerless, adults are forbidden to act, or are afraid, when they see antisocial acts. In the past a clip round the ear would have sufficed.
- police are stretched on other things, and don't seem to venture out of their ivory towers. Don't bother calling them for a minor theft! They had plenty of opportunity in Barwell, but were preoccupied on other targets set by the government.

Blair was right - the activities of feral youths will only be reduced by meaningful punishments - community service orders, if we are squeamish about incarceration. Otherwise ASBOs are merely "badges of honour".

But he was not tough on causes, which go back to inadequate parents and dysfunctional families which combine with an educational system which has little effective discipline or sanction. The former, with too many single parents and parents on benefit since their teens, will be a hard nut to crack, but educationally there could be much firmer discipline with mentoring and role models.

Above all, if police and councils actually had to listen to what their local citizens wanted, rather than being agents of central government, in other words local accountability, then the problem would be reduced.