Spare me law-and-order measures. We must rescue young people, not tag them

I have never, in the 40 years that I have lived in Britain, heard young people so reviled: yobs, thugs, morons, scum are some of the nouns used, alongside the adjective "feral". An entire generation of working-class children, black, white and brown, drifts in the dark.

At the weekend, Mrs Howe and I attended the Lambeth Country Show. It represents itself as a cultural showcase for the citizens of the borough. Yet, apart from the miserable funfair, which returns year after year, the youths are neither catered for nor represented. On the music stage were reggae acts of yesteryear for an audience of oldies. On the stalls, there was nothing for young people to buy or sell. Oh yes, there was a huddle of seven children (I counted them) drawing images - which they could easily have done at home.

Young men stood around with surly faces screwed up in discontent. One group of young blacks dressed in grey tracksuits, with hoods half covering their faces, looked positively menacing. They stood about, interested in nothing and threatening everything. In any south London park, stuck to a building or a tree, you will find a notice drawing attention to the punishment for antisocial behaviour. You will not find a single notice welcoming young people and pointing them to activities in which they may participate.

Saturated in binge drinking, they turn on each other. Teddy boys and girls of the 1950s were guilty of being disorderly. In the 1960s, mods fought rockers on the seafronts and, later, white youths went in for Paki-bashing. But nothing resembles the alienation of the youths of today.

Once, hundreds of youth clubs flowered. I volunteered at one in west London. But the authorities, both church and state, slashed budgets until the clubs were all but destroyed.

Young people occupy the streets all year, chasing their tails and those of others. They pass their working parents like strangers in the night. The consequences in the Caribbean community have been dire. The dead bodies proliferate. I can point to four young men, here in south London within a mile radius, who were shot dead in the past year. There is an unprecedented increase in police numbers and in youths carrying guns.

I do not believe in all these new measures to enforce "law and order". We need to rescue young people, not tag them.

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