A Small Case Study
I was walking along Argyll Street in Glasgow a year or two ago - in the days when a Labour government was in power at Westminster.
Must have been around 7pm in the evening - but it was still daylight - the street was busy, full of shoppers and people making their way home from work.
I noticed a small crowd of young people - maybe eight boys and girls who were around thirteen or fourteen - possibly younger.
For some reason I focused on a young fair haired chap- nicely dressed and turned out - who suddenly produced a small 'ball hammer' - which had been hidden up his sleeve.
The young man then proceeded to smash the glass out of a row of modern, new phone boxes - right in the middle of the street which was a pedestrian-only area.
Smashed them right to smithereens - right in front of my eyes and those of many other people as well.
He ran off - with his little gang in tow - I was shocked, tempted to give chase - but thought the better of it and phoned 999 on my mobile.
I described the young man and his friends - followed them for a while and gave the police a steer as to where they were heading.
After that I heard no more, but I suspect no one was arrested - because the police never got in touch to ask if I would be a witness in court.
I asked myself then what would possess a young man to act in that way - was he disturbed, disaffected and/or alienated from society?
Maybe - maybe even all three.
But that didn't give him the right to behave in that way under a Labour government.
And it doesn't give the right to behave that way - under a Tory/Lib Dem coalition government either.
Must have been around 7pm in the evening - but it was still daylight - the street was busy, full of shoppers and people making their way home from work.
I noticed a small crowd of young people - maybe eight boys and girls who were around thirteen or fourteen - possibly younger.
For some reason I focused on a young fair haired chap- nicely dressed and turned out - who suddenly produced a small 'ball hammer' - which had been hidden up his sleeve.
The young man then proceeded to smash the glass out of a row of modern, new phone boxes - right in the middle of the street which was a pedestrian-only area.
Smashed them right to smithereens - right in front of my eyes and those of many other people as well.
He ran off - with his little gang in tow - I was shocked, tempted to give chase - but thought the better of it and phoned 999 on my mobile.
I described the young man and his friends - followed them for a while and gave the police a steer as to where they were heading.
After that I heard no more, but I suspect no one was arrested - because the police never got in touch to ask if I would be a witness in court.
I asked myself then what would possess a young man to act in that way - was he disturbed, disaffected and/or alienated from society?
Maybe - maybe even all three.
But that didn't give him the right to behave in that way under a Labour government.
And it doesn't give the right to behave that way - under a Tory/Lib Dem coalition government either.
