Report to the People
30th October 2006
Green-Sky
Thinking
Blue-sky
thinking, a wise man once said, is thinking not encumbered by thought.
And,
when I hear some of the “out of the box” ideas put forward by the Scottish
Parliament’s more colourful members, I see can see his point.
Take
last Thursday’s debate on a motion tabled by the Green Party.
This advanced the argument that standing up to antisocial behaviour
equates to demonising children. New
antisocial behaviour laws are, apparently, whipping up a fear of children in
society. (And, before you ask, no,
I don’t know what any of this has to do with the environment either.)
The
claim that cracking down on antisocial behaviour is somehow “anti-child” is
one often bandied about by the liberal elite.
The fact, though, is that those with the most to gain from this drive are
children and young people themselves.
It
is young people, after all, who are more likely to be the victims
of antisocial behaviour. The
law-abiding majority of youngsters (the Executive says about 1 in 500 young
people is a persistent problem) will therefore be able to go about their
business without fear of being jumped or mugged for their mobile.
There
are those, young and old, who simply refuse to adhere to certain standards of
behaviour and the aim of the antisocial behaviour legislation is to make them do
so. And, so long as we’re still
some way off from that goal, it’s in everyone’s interests, especially our
young people’s, that our efforts are maintained and stepped up.
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