"Our youth now love luxury.

They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers." No it wasnt David Cameron or any of the current Members of Parliament who said this yesterday in their debate. Although it could so easily have been! These feral (def. existing in a wild or untamed state, either naturally or having returned to such a state from domestication) youth occupying the streets of our towns and cities, thieving and rioting, causing widespread fear and hostility deserve no justice, except that provided by the end of a whip, or even a gun as I heard someone say yesterday in the supermarket! Whilst these looters can never be called Thatchers children, is it possible to refer to them as Thatchers grandchildren? That meme generations of parents and young people utterly devoid of compassion, conscience or cultural boundaries besotted only by consumerism and greed! So who did originate the opening quote, no it wasnt our illustrious Prime Minister, of course, although his comment Young people stealing flat-screen televisions and burning shopsthat was not about politics or protest, it was about theft may resonate with the original speaker. Even his further comment to the great and the good of the House of Commons I have said before that there is a major problem in our society with children growing up not knowing the difference between right and wrong. This is not about poverty; it is about culture a culture that glorifies violence, shows disrespect to authority and says everything about rights but nothing about responsibilities resounds with a similar hostility and antipathy towards the young. In 398 BC when Socrates was telling the great and the good of the Athenian elite about the shortcomings of youth I am sure he would have been somewhat surprised to know that his rhetorical phrases would so readily be quoted in 2011. This demonization of youth continues and can be found on the front (and inside) pages of most of this weeks newspapers. But what of the reality? One of the difficulties for our third estate is how to define youth. One could easily be lead to believe that all those wearing designer labels, scarves and trainers are, in fact, young people but this would be to miss the point, Im afraid. The Guardian, today, has been collating information on those 150+ cases that have been brought before the magistrates so far. Of these cases 4 out of 5 are adults! This analysis is to continue and I will be interested to see if these statistics change much. But, you may say, so what, Ill bet theyre quite young anyway. And, of course, you are right. Half of those cases before the courts are aged 18-24 years old, but they are still adults! My serious concern is that, in these difficult times, I am worried that the riots will prompt the press and our democratic leaders back to labelling young people in

general as "thugs", "louts" and "hoodies". There are over 4m teenagers and the great majority are both law abiding and make a positive contribution. To put in context, in any one year, there are ten times more young people participating in the Duke of Edinburghs Award in Wiltshire than are brought to the attention of the Police. Young people deserve our support not our demonization!