Bloggers to this site are right to draw attention to the relationship between poor parenting and yobbish behaviour.

The land of the ASBO has not been notably successful at being tough on crime, and Mr Blair is still trying to find out the causes of crime that he needs to tackle.

Labour thought that if they showered enough benefits??on low income families there would be a miracle cure. The truth is problem teenagers come from all backgrounds that have one thing in common – a lack of family support, love and authority.

Neither party has yet come up with all that is needed to tackle this problem. Labour lays stress on benefits to deal with poverty. Conservatives sympathise with tax breaks for married couples, in the hope that will help them come together and stay together. Both these approaches have some merit.

The Labour approach has the downside that it can take away incentives to work and for fathers to be involved. The Conservative approach does not do anything for those on very ??low or no incomes.

All adults in a community have a responsibility to help where they can, to give the next generaiton belief and hope. If we communicate to young people our loves – for doing well, for building businesses, for playing sports, for listening to music,??for learning new skills – we can help direct youthful energy into?? more positive lives.

This government has made much of that more difficult by too much political correctness. Decent adults feel they cannot hug a child in need??of support for fear of misinterpretation. They fear they cannot chastise a youth??in case??of legal action.

Children and young people need both love and rules. They need inspiration. They need adults who will organise the local football game, run the local dance classes, and train the young?? musicians. Broken communities do not do these things, and so life there degrades and falls apart. The state cannot substitute for good parents, good grandparents, good teachers and good neighbours.