Denis: Blame the parents for broken Britain

Oct 2 2009 By Denis Kilcommons

THIS was the week when an inquest criticised police and social workers for not doing enough to help Fiona Pilkington and her disabled daughter who were hounded to their deaths after a 10 year hate campaign by local youths in Leicestershire.

It was the week when Gordon Brown promised tougher action against alcohol-fuelled crime and problem families who make the lives of their neighbours a misery. When Home Secretary Alan Johnson said police should concentrate more on ridding the streets of antisocial behaviour.

It was a week when, round the bar, talk was of the feral gangs of 14 and 15-year-olds who are making late Friday and Saturday nights no-go areas in the centre of the village of Honley.

Windows have been smashed, bottles thrown at passing cars, pedestrians intimidated, threatened and attacked. Once unleashed, the stories of first hand experience and stories uncorroborated were related in a frightening litany that serve as an illustration of a socially broken Britain.

I was unaware of the intensity of the problem as my wife Maria and I are never out late at night but, for those who are, weekends, apparently, are a war zone.

Presumably this scenario is repeated in other villages and urban centres in the area where gangs of youths gather. What a sad reflection on society.

“It should be reported to the police,” I said.