Scotland and especially England remain in the throes of systemic social dysfunction. Anti-social behavior rules: boozed-up street youths known as neds and yobs - plus public housing families from hell - continue to render life unbearable for neighbors and fellow townsfolk. The daily news is full of one horrid incident after another; rooted in violence, disrespect and often, drunkenness.

How bad is it? Just a few tiny snapshots.

Vile young gits are running amok in Scotland - the Daily Mirror has more on the "Scourge Of The Apprentice Neds."

Then there's the mother of five, also a grandma aged 70, in Telford, Shropshire, left bloody with a broken nose from bricks flung through her window by local yobs; it was the fourth such incident involving hurled bricks at their home, according to her husband.

Even worse is this bunch of tossers, an "ASBO hell family" which resided in council flats on - yes, really - Leadenflower Place - in Crieff, Perthshire.

A family were yesterday booted out of their home under anti-social behaviour laws. Bridget and Robert Marr, along with their son Michael, were escorted from their house by police and council officials. Neighbours complained that the house was used as an all-hours drinking den...The Marrs have been banned from their council house in Crieff, Perthshire, for a minimum of six weeks, to give neighbours a break. Bridget, 55, and Michael were already subject to anti-social behaviour orders, which did little to curb their behaviour. And police had responded to 29 separate complaints about behaviour at the Marrs' home in the past three months. Locals complained that the house in Leadenflower Place was an all-hours drinking den. Bridget played dance music, including a remix of Britney Spears hit Toxic, at top volume through the night.

Neighbours who complained about the noise and swearing were threatened with violence, and visitors to the flat were seen urinating in the common close. The Marrs' disabled neighbour Alan Sinclair,40, said:"They called me a crippled b****** and things like that when I complained. "A bit of quiet will be bliss." Another neighbour, Colin Galbraith, claimed that Michael Marr threatened him with violence if he complained to the authorities. Marr allegedly told him: "I will slit your throat. I'm warning you, fat man, don't go near the council." The Marrs were taken away in a council minibus. Arrangements have been made to temporarily rehouse them in a council home on Perth's Muirton estate, where they used to live.

First off, the excrescent Britney muzaque promulgator deserves about five years in shackles. As for merely sending these miscreants to another public housing venue? Oh, lucky former neighbors! Expel these vermin from public housing altogether! For starters. Anything less merely enables their "F*** All" sense of government-enabled entitlement.

I'm pissing a blue streak because community viability cuts to the core, whether the concern is bad neighbors, overt crime, harrassment, or trashed streets. Don't ever short-sell the resonance of such issues - as many U.S. mayors, city councils and police chiefs have learned.

With public concerns over rampant yobbery reaching fever pitch, Labour Party standard-bearer and Prime Minister Tony Blair has come out swinging - if late - proposing a comprehensive new "respect action plan," including eviction powers for "council flat" or public housing families deemed repeat offenders of ASBOs or anti-social behavior orders. The Guardian has more, on what Britain's would-be Rudy G. wants:

The key measures of the...cross-departmental effort...include:

consulting on a new power to evict persistent troublemakers from their homes for three months;

more parenting courses, with more agencies able to impose parenting orders on those parents who refuse to take up help when their children are "out of control;"

a "national parenting academy," to train social workers, clinical psychologists, community safety officers and youth justice workers about advising parents, plus more parenting orders;

possible nighttime curfews and new, fixed penalty notices rising from £80 to £100, injunctions against antisocial behaviour, and more unpaid community service orders;

communities are to be given powers to grill the police on their battle with yobs and demand tougher action where they think they have failed.

They must hold "face the people" sessions and respond to a "community call to action" within a set deadline;

more money for youth clubs and sports centres, as announced in last year's pre-budget report;

....Mr Blair, launching the scheme with a symbolic removal of some graffiti, said he wanted a "radical new approach to restore the liberty of the law-abiding citizen. My view is very clear - their freedom to be safe from fear comes first." Saying Britain was fighting 21st century crime with 19th century methods, the PM added: "Traditional thinking will have to be overthrown if we are to get to grips with practical reality."

A bit statist, Yes. But law-breaking actions require consequences. Tony-O's moving in the right direction here. Let's hope the bureaucracy, the public and Parliament lend their enthusiastic support, and add some steroids to the mix.

TECHNORATI TAGS: TONY BLAIR, ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOR, ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, POLICE, SOCIAL SERVICES, YOBS, NEDS, COUNCIL FLATS, EVICTIONS, DAVID CAMERON

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at January 11, 2006 12:10 AM

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