I really do despair of youths!!!!

[Monsieur]

Well I've paid unemployment insurance all my life and then it's suggested that I don't get my benefit? What do you think I'll have to do then? Go robbing, to get something to eat. How about removing tax breaks for the better off, see if that incentivises them to work harder. These cut the benefit solutions are always recommended for the poor, never the rich.

I've been on the dole, and I get angry when I hear people say how generous and easy it is to get - if it's so easy, I tell them, go and claim it. You'll find that it's nothing like you dream of.

And don't link poverty with hooliganism - that's just a prejudice like you get in the Daily Mail. I grew up with very little, and I wasnt a hooligan.

Bandwagon????
When did I say that poverty equals hooliganism?
I too came from a deprived background. What I was implying was that poor literacy skills, **** parents and a society that rewards idleness is to blame for much of our ills.

[AlanH]

Well I've paid unemployment insurance all my life and then it's suggested that I don't get my benefit? What do you think I'll have to do then? Go robbing, to get something to eat.

What about getting another job? Surely that's a better option.

[StumpyFingers]

Getting back on the topic of the youths manners.
A while ago a youth got on my mates bus with his PIT BULL type dog and became rude when he could not use a £50 note for a £2 fare.
He threatened to meet the Driver and set the dog on him and Knife him ETC.
Two days ago this same youth past his house with the dog and that insane swagger they walk with.
So My mate got his two dogs, they are the type used in the Turner and Hootch movie.
Walked out and confronted the youth, after letting his two dogs go to play with the youths dog.
The youth run the quarter mile in world record time.

[Steve C]

I had a similar situation while at Euro disney about 10 years ago ...snip...unfortunately the french police were waiting for me at the end of it and dragged me off the the police station for 4 hrs completely ruining the kids day................maybe I should have let it go but I was so damn angry.....I ended up quite embarrassed with myself

I had a similar situation about ten years ago on a train. When I finally walked over to help him review his attitude (I wasn't always this peace loving hippy you know ) , he was trying to set fire to a seat. Everybody in the carriage was pleased that I stood up to him. I was arrested, he walked away the 'victim'... And like Alpslapper, if I pick up a conviction now, I can't work.

[alpslapper]

I had a similar situation about ten years ago on a train. When I finally walked over to help him review his attitude (I wasn't always this peace loving hippy you know ) , he was trying to set fire to a seat. Everybody in the carriage was pleased that I stood up to him. I was arrested, he walked away the 'victim'... And like Alpslapper, if I pick up a conviction now, I can't work.

This is what happens in my area on trains .

WALTHAMSTOW: Train passenger's skull fractured in violent assault (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

What eats me, is given the time, I can't believe there wasn't at least 20 other men in that carriage, who, acting in concert, could at least have 'stopped'' them or ''held'' them, or at least one of them. It's that communal inertia, that total reluctance now of decent law abiding people to get involved, that these thugs thrive on.
But then again, ordinary people don't want to get stabbed to death for going to someones aid around here. It's a given around here that there's an almost 100% chance that the youth on the streets around here all carry weapons.
I'm not aware of any other animal where the adults are afraid of the young. There's a general need for a major overhaul of this situation.
I don't have the answer. I wish I did.
There's simply no question that all youth are not bad. There's about 20 kids my daughters age in her St. John Ambulance Unit. Great kids that give up their free time to help and support the community and provide an essential service at public events. That's one of a myriad of local examples.

[tackle]

hey tom, read the first couple of pages of this thread (would have read 'em all but knackered & got to be up in 4 hours),bottom line is you did the right thing........whether you battered 7 shades of ****e out of the three scrotes or they in turn did it to you ?, its the kind of thing that would feck up a childs mind for years after.

im an ex-squaddie, joined up in '84, just after the falklands, when this was a patriotic country & we could still call it great britain & walk home from a pub or club in the early hours & everyone on the street was a "mate"......now it sickens me everytime i turn on the news........so much so that we've decided to pack up & feck off abroad before our son (11 y.o.) is exposed to too much of the same crap.........dont get me wrong, i'd love to see the country put right but i think its now beyond help.

to all you guys that find yourself in similar situations, good luck,do what you feel is right & just at the time........i wish i could be there to back you all up, maybe then the thugs & scum would think twice.........mark