School Holidays Options

[Anon]

Seems that the police and council seem to be putting most of their effort into chasing after the people who actually make them money by paying their fines.

There is no profit in catching and prosecuting for anti social behaviour.

On top of that there is no punishment when caught.

Most of the people of this country list anti-social behaviour and it's associated crimes as one of their top issues and yet nothing is done about it.

I beg to differ! The government try to implament ludacrus ideas to combat anti-social behaviour, such at ASBOS and the Respect action plan, which as we all know where complete and utter failures! Good old labour government really know how to make a **** up of things!!

[Biker1]

Where do youngsters get there money from for drinks etc.,

They don't - they nick it!!

[Biker1]

I beg to differ! The government try to implament ludacrus ideas to combat anti-social behaviour, such at ASBOS and the Respect action plan, which as we all know where complete and utter failures! Good old labour government really know how to make a **** up of things!!

How does that differ from what I said?

[GMR]

If they are drinking - I assume you mean alcohol - they can't be school kids.............unless some shop keeper has broken the law & sold them some booze........and if they are not school kids they'll be there term time too.

There are plenty of school kids (under 16) who drink alcohol. I've seen some as young as 8. It is not hard for them to get it either as they ask adults to buy it for them. I've been asked if I would buy them alcohol or cigarettes. They stand buy places like OneStop asking people if they would buy them.

[Guest_Newbury Expat_*]

Its the same story though, what do we offer these kids to do during the holidays?

Is there anything that is fun and doesnt cost too much money?

Could the council not organise some cheap events such as sports tournaments, days out, cinema trips etc.

I think back to my school days and the stuff we did during the holidays, and it probably wasnt much different to what they do now. I was lucky and had a great group of friends and most the time we kept ourselves busy, but we did smoke, drink swear etc, we were just clever enough to hang around in more remote places than town

I don't get the need for the council to organize something and even if they did, it couldn't cater for hundreds of kids every day. Not to mention the kids who will cause most trouble will not be the ones attending such an event.

I took responsibility for my own summers for the most part (other than the week or two we went on holiday as a family). I played football with locally living mates, I went over to their houses and vice versa to play computer games. I'd watch the backlog of videos we had in the house (to this day can still quote most of Blackadder!). Watch cricket on tv. Got myself a summer tennis permit for 3 quid to use the St Barts tennis courts. Read a book!

And if I wanted any pocket money I had to do some chores around the house while my parents were at work (empty dishwasher, do some laundry, hoovering) - nothing big but enough to annoy me for a few minutes.

This was most of my friends too. Nothing special, nothing expensive, just some reasonable values from our parents.

[JeffG]

just some reasonable values from our parents.

And that's what it all comes down to. Give the parents a whopping fine every time their kids misbehave and the problem would soon be cleared up.

[Iommi]

Corporal punishment, fines for the parents, etc, would have limited results. The snag is, we cannot uninvent whatever it is that has resulted in such behaviour. I remember as a kid, we weren't particularly brilliant back then.

[GMR]

Corporal punishment, fines for the parents, etc, would have limited results. The snag is, we cannot uninvent whatever it is that has resulted in such behaviour. I remember as a kid, we weren't particularly brilliant back then.

What do you mean by "brilliant back then"? That you were naught or that you weren't good at school?

Not doing well at schools doesn't equate with being naughty.

[Iommi]

What do you mean by "brilliant back then"? That you were naught or that you weren't good at school? Not doing well at schools doesn't equate with being naughty.

The clues in the original post! But for the sake of convenience - behaviour.

[GMR]

The clues in the original post! But for the sake of convenience - behaviour.

We may not have been brilliant back then but at least there were guidelines for us; if we stepped-over the markings we knew what the consquences of our actions were. There is nothing in this day and age.

[spartacus]

Its the same story though, what do we offer these kids to do during the holidays?

Is there anything that is fun and doesnt cost too much money?

Could the council not organise some cheap events such as sports tournaments, days out, cinema trips etc.

I think quite a bit of money, effort and goodwill gets spent trying to provide ‘things for kids to do’. Unfortunately the same 2-5% of ‘the uncontrollables’ spoil it for the rest when they decide, for no reason, to destroy those things that have been provided. There’s a thousand examples every week across the country of the sort where brand new play parks or sports pavilions are vandalised or made off limits with broken glass.

For those kids in Newbury that can be bothered to get off their backsides though, there’s plenty to do. My kids have enjoyed the skatepark over the years (free and they learn to take the odd knock), Adventure Dolphin trips/kayaking/climbing courses etc (cheap) and we’re lucky in this part of the country in that you don’t have to cycle too far before you’re ‘in the woods’ and can get up to the same sort of mayhem that I used to get up to when I was their age.

(Fair enough.. they no longer play cowboys & injuns or ‘soldiers’ attacking the germans..... but they can still have fun for free....)

It’s the ‘un-cool’ factor that stops them. Peer pressure stops a lot of kids doing what they might actually enjoy doing “coz me mates say it’s gay........”

Dare i suggest bringing back the national service? May help with some of these 'lost cases'

That is such a bad idea and it gets brought out whenever there’s a discussion about the ‘youth of today’. It would only work if the army ‘physical disciplinary’ system was like it was last time there was National Service (or even when I was a lad)

Bring in NS and the ‘fluffy brigade’ would be stepping in with their open-toe sandals making sure sergeant majors didn’t shout at the poor lambs and make them sniffle. Lads join the army because they WANT to be in ......the last thing they want to be doing is namby pamby-ing a bunch of cretins who don't want to play and whose answer to every order is “Why should I bovver....”

When I was in the army that sort of thing just wouldn't happen.... (or it would only happen once...just once )

[GMR]

When I was in the army that sort of thing just wouldn't happen.... (or it would only happen once...just once )

I was never in the army.... I was in the girl-guides (better than the boyscouts). One think about the girl-guides... they did guide you

[Simon]

I agree with your comments Spartacus. So can we put some of the blame of these 'troubled' youths onto the ‘fluffy brigade’ or the PC activists, as they are the idiots that manage to stop any kind of effective punshment from remaining legal.

I always got a slapped backside if i stepped out of line, which actually stopped me from stepping too far over the line. shock horror, it worked.

Now parents are not allowed to do that, kids are getting worse.

[Bloggo]

I agree with your comments Spartacus. So can we put some of the blame of these 'troubled' youths onto the ‘fluffy brigade’ or the PC activists, as they are the idiots that manage to stop any kind of effective punshment from remaining legal.

I always got a slapped backside if i stepped out of line, which actually stopped me from stepping too far over the line. shock horror, it worked.

Now parents are not allowed to do that, kids are getting worse.

I agree entirely. Our lack of control is letting the kids down. We are breeding an under class who won't thank us for our leniency when they are old enough to see the error of their ways.

[Iommi]

And to compound the idea (although there are a lot of professional nannies and nurses that claim corporal punishment isn't necessary), children are still getting abused. It's a bit like banning knifes and guns, yet they still infest our society.

Calling people PC fluffy brigade, etc, isn't helpful either. I think most people do things for the right reasons.

[Simon]

Calling people PC fluffy brigade, etc, isn't helpful either. I think most people do things for the right reasons.

Iommi, i have to disagree with you. I think the PC brigade do things for their OWN reasons. I think they want/need the publicity, want/need to go down in history as making 'change'.

They jump into any cause they can, whether they have knowledge of the issues or not, change laws for the 'better' and then back away into the shadows when things start to go wrong.

I could go on about this topic for ages, but that would be another thread lol

[GMR]

Calling people PC fluffy brigade, etc, isn't helpful either. I think most people do things for the right reasons.

I totally agree with you here; I don't think anybody does anything for the wrong reasons. When they do it they believe they are improving the world. Hitler wanted to rid the world of the Jews because he thought it would make a difference. Stalin the same. Even the Yorkshire Ripper believed he was doing god’s work. Of course they were all delusional and bloody mad. The same with the PC brigade, of course they are not in the same league as the other lunatics I’ve mentioned, but not far from it. It is the PC brigade that has contributed to the world we’ve got today; the world before their involvement was a better place, not perfect, but better. But you are right, nobody does it for the wrong reasons in their mind. The problem here is their mind!

[Iommi]

Iommi, i have to disagree with you. I think the PC brigade do things for their OWN reasons. I think they want/need the publicity, want/need to go down in history as making 'change'...

I totally agree with you here; I don't think anybody does anything for the wrong reasons. When they do it they believe they are improving the world. Hitler wanted to rid the world of the Jews because he thought it would make a difference. Stalin the same....

Who are the PC brigade? I don't think there is such a thing. What we have, I think, is social evolution and this is simply a stage in that process.

I'd be interested in seeing how you can justify statements like, "It is the PC brigade that has contributed to the world we’ve got today; the world before their involvement was a better place, not perfect, but better." How do you come to this conclusion? Bare in mind the vast amount of slums, pollution, cruelty, child/slave labour, etc, that once was the norm.

I'll over look your Nazi point as a figure of speech. Look where it got us last time

[GMR]

Who are the PC brigade? I don't think there is such a thing. What we have, I think, is social evolution and this is simply a stage in that process.

Of course there are such things. I’ll give you a couple of small examples.

In Birmingham shop a couple of years ago – 90’s I think, which, is more than a couple of years ago – a corner shop was selling Christmas cards with pictures of black children singing “I am dreaming of a white Christmas.” The black community were the biggest purchasers of these cards. A couple of white people went in thought the cards were racialist and made a complaint. The upshot of that was the black community got the backlash.

Again a couple of years ago; this was on the news. A job centre - one job centre - refused to accept a job card that stated “We are look for hard working people”. The reason it was rejected was because it seemed, to them, it was anti disabled people. The disabled lobby were insulted, as it suggested they didn’t work hard and the job centre got the back lash. And there are many thousands of examples. The PC Brigade thought they were trying improve things, but were actually making things worse.

We are in a social evolutionary process, but that doesn’t mean the direction we are going in is correct or that we shouldn’t stop it. In the early 1900’s there was a social evolution towards eugenics, which was stopped in its tracks... should that path have been allowed to continue?

I'd be interested in seeing how you can justify statements like, "It is the PC brigade that has contributed to the world we’ve got today; the world before their involvement was a better place, not perfect, but better." How do you come to this conclusion? Bare in mind the vast amount of slums, pollution, cruelty, child/slave labour, etc, that once was the norm.

The vast amounts of slums etc are still the norm in certain countries and we haven’t escaped it totally in the western world.

There has been improvements in some parts, but in others a backward step.

The PC grade have made things worse where cultural cohesion is concerned. Political correctness has made people fearful to speak out in case they are labelled bigots or racialists... I meant in that sense. We have a fear culture of feeling we can’t speak out.

I'll over look your Nazi point as a figure of speech. Look where it got us last time.

My point was that people do, do things for the best intentions – i.e. as in the Nazi’s – even though the rest of the world thought differently; which was your original point.

[dannyboy]

My point was that people do, do things for the best intentions – i.e. as in the Nazi’s –

are you trying to win some dubious award?