Nobody calls the Boy Scouts 'animals', rants Barnardo's boss
Last updated at 12:14 AM on 18th November 2008
Richard Littlejohn
The boss of what used to be called Dr Barnardo's was putting himself
about in the media yesterday. So what did this esteemed head of one of
Britain's leading children's charities want to talk about?
We might have expected him to have a contribution to the debate
surrounding the ghastly case of the tragic toddler tortured to death
under the noses of social workers in Haringey.
Perhaps he was offering a solution to the carnival of knife crime on our
streets, which is claiming so many young lives.
Maybe he was going to urge the lifting of the ban on foster parents who
smoke, or are considered too white, too middle-class, too old at 40, or
generally suspected of voting Tory, who could otherwise provide a loving
family environment for children condemned to a grim life in care homes.
But, no. His priority was a fatuous survey commissioned by Barnardo's
accusing the Great British Public of demonising children. In a statement
of breathtaking, unscientific generality, Martin Narey said half of us
think children behave like animals, and more than a third regularly
refer to them as vermin, who ought to be shot.
He has formed this view after studying assorted contributions to
websites and responses to loaded questions from a polling firm. Then he
projects the exasperated outpourings of bloggers on to adults as a
whole.
Narey said: 'It is appalling that words like animal, feral and vermin
are used daily in reference to children. These represent the public view
of all children.'
No, they don't. But why let the facts get in the way of a good, old-
fashioned bien pensant rant?
'Despite the fact that most children are not troublesome, there is still
a perception that today's young people are a lot more unruly, criminal
lot than ever before.'
That's because a sizeable minority of them are, old son.
Acknowledging that simple truth is not exhibiting 'disturbing
intolerance' of the young. It is facing up to reality.
Narey says his survey found that adults are increasingly frightened of
youngsters, and believe them to be a danger both to themselves and
others - which is one thing most people reading this would agree on.
Is it any wonder? If you live in an area terrorised by gangs, you might
call them 'animals'.
What word other than 'feral' better describes the swarms of hooligans
abandoned to their own devices by slattern mothers and absentee
'babyfathers'?
No one crosses the road if they spot a crocodile of Boy Scouts coming in
the other direction. But nor does anyone in their right mind risk
walking through a scrum of hoodies hogging the pavement - not unless
they fancy a knife in their ribs.
If you've had your windows broken, your shed vandalised, your car burned
out and your front garden littered with empty cans of extra-strength
lager by some of these of these little darlings, you'd be forgiven for
telling a pollster that they ought to be shot.
Certainly, there appears to be scarce alternative sanction. Take them on
yourself and you're likely to get your collar felt.
How many times have we read of beleaguered householders snapping in the
face of intense provocation - and then being arrested and charged
themselves, while their young tormentors walk free?
The courts are reluctant to pass deterrent sentences on juveniles. I
regularly hear from frustrated cops who have arrested and re-arrested
some young toe-rag, only to see him walk away on each occasion with a
slap on the wrist, laughing in the face of the law, and immediately
reoffending.
There are reports of serial criminals appearing in court as many as
eight, ten, a dozen times before any meaningful action is taken against
them. Magistrates tell me their hands are tied by rules laid down by the
Home Office and the laughably-named Ministry of 'Justice'.
Our entire criminal justice system is designed to indulge young
offenders, rather than nip their inevitable life of crime in the bud by
intervening early and coming down on them like the proverbial ton of
bricks. No wonder they grow up thinking they're above the law.
Hundreds of you have written to me about my column last week on the
rising tide of scum in Britain, despairing at what has happened to once-
respectable neighbourhoods.
My thanks to you all, and I'm sorry I can't reply to everyone
personally. If you recall, I was careful not to blame the children. What
chance have they got?
One of my regular correspondents, Kerry Bacon, said she was reading the
column as she travelled up to London by train on Friday morning.
Opposite sat one of these Vicky Pollard lookalikes, supping a Bacardi
Breezer, accompanied by her unruly young kid, who answered to the name
of Saxon.
One of the characteristics of underclass is the daft names they give
their children. If you saddle a child with the kind of name you'd give a
Rottweiler, don't be surprised if he grows up behaving like one.
No doubt Martin Narey would accuse me of middle-class snobbery. He's a
paid-up member of the polytechnocracy, who graduated to Barnardo's via
the prison service and is a leading light of the Guardianista
establishment, which has created and nourished the social breakdown we
find ourselves having to contend with today.
He'd rather blame 'society' - by which he means Daily Mail readers -
than admit his own side's culpability.
But the problems have been created by people like him, who have built a
welfare monster which strips people of individual responsibility,
encourages their fecklessness and excuses their venality.
According to Narey's world view, the worst crime in the world is to be
'judgmental' - hence his latest ridiculous outburst.
In one interview, he even complained about newsagents which display 'No
More Than Two Schoolchildren At A Time' notices in their window. Try
telling that to cornershop-keepers sick of having their stock ransacked
by swarms of young thieves.
Before it changed its name, Dr Barnardo's was an august organisation
which ran hundreds of orphanages and care homes. They've all been hived
off.
Now it is just another part of the vast, Leftist, professional
charitable sector and prefers political campaigning and frittering away
donations on absurd, self-promoting surveys designed to prove 'we are
all to blame'.
No, we're not.
Mandy come dancing
Mandelson says he watches Strictly Come Dancing with a degree of envy,
and would love to be invited to take part.
You can just imagine Mandy and Reinaldo doing the Flamenco under
Brucie's watchful eye. 'Come on, my loves, give us a twirl.'
Strictly Come Dancing
Mind you, I can't see Mandelson making the final.
If he didn't get disqualified for lying on his application form, he'd
probably have to resign after the first heat for trying to nobble the
judges and rigging the phone vote. 'I'm warning you, I'm a personal
friend of the Director-General . . .'
Now Labour resorts to blackmail
Geoff Hoon, our fourth-rate Transport Minister, is trying to bully the
people of Manchester into voting for a controversial and unpopular road-
pricing scheme, which would cost motorists £5 a day - at a time they can
least afford it.
He says if they reject the plans in a referendum, they won't get £1.5
billion for new trains and other improvements which would bring much-
needed new jobs to the city.
This is a scandalous abuse of power and an affront to democracy, though
typical of the way Labour uses public money to buy votes.
Don't forget, it's not long since Gordon Brown promised to scrap road-
pricing plans after mass protests on the Downing Street website.
Let's hope that the people of Manchester overwhelmingly vote 'No' to
this scheme and remember Hoon's threats and Brown's lies when it comes
to the next general election.
* Mail reader Audrey Hodgson writes to me with the latest on the
divorce of Mr and Mrs Guy Ritchie. 'When Madonna moved to London, she
said she wanted to become more English. She is now an unmarried mother,
with three children by different fathers, one of them African. Job
done.'
* On Friday, I said those two marvellous Northern battle-axes,
Cissy and Ada, were played by Les Dawson and Peter Butterworth. As many
of you pointed out, it wasn't Butterworth, it was that fine actor Roy
Barraclough, best known as the landlord of the Rover's Return, in
Coronation Street. Sorry, Roy. My mistake. Incidentally, Cissy and Ada
are still doing a turn in cyberspace, thanks to the magic of YouTube.
Peter Butterworth, of course, starred in 16 Carry On films. Trust me to
mix up my Carry On with my Corrie.
Makes you proud to Bhs
British Homes Stores is being criticised for stocking a festive range of
nipple tassels, edible G-strings and something described as
'breastshaped stress relievers' alongside children's toys.
I know times are tough, but there's got to be a more dignified way of
turning a profit. One shopper, Mrs Alicia Moss, said: 'I'm not a prude,
but I don't expect this sort of thing in a family store like Bhs.'
My sentiments entirely, Mrs Moss. This stuff used to be exclusive to Ann
Summers and some of the grubbier stores in Soho. Still, I seem to
remember reading that even Boots is knocking out vibrators these days,
next to the Vicks Vapour Rub.
Call me old-fashioned, but some of us can still remember when British
Home Stores sold nothing more racy than winceyette nighties.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1086802/RICHARD-LITTLEJOHN-
Nobody-calls-Boy-Scouts-animals.html
about in the media yesterday. So what did this esteemed head of one of
Britain's leading children's charities want to talk about?
We might have expected him to have a contribution to the debate
surrounding the ghastly case of the tragic toddler tortured to death
under the noses of social workers in Haringey.
Perhaps he was offering a solution to the carnival of knife crime on our
streets, which is claiming so many young lives.
Maybe he was going to urge the lifting of the ban on foster parents who
smoke, or are considered too white, too middle-class, too old at 40, or
generally suspected of voting Tory, who could otherwise provide a loving
family environment for children condemned to a grim life in care homes.
But, no. His priority was a fatuous survey commissioned by Barnardo's
accusing the Great British Public of demonising children. In a statement
of breathtaking, unscientific generality, Martin Narey said half of us
think children behave like animals, and more than a third regularly
refer to them as vermin, who ought to be shot.
He has formed this view after studying assorted contributions to
websites and responses to loaded questions from a polling firm. Then he
projects the exasperated outpourings of bloggers on to adults as a
whole.
Narey said: 'It is appalling that words like animal, feral and vermin
are used daily in reference to children. These represent the public view
of all children.'
No, they don't. But why let the facts get in the way of a good, old-
fashioned bien pensant rant?
'Despite the fact that most children are not troublesome, there is still
a perception that today's young people are a lot more unruly, criminal
lot than ever before.'
That's because a sizeable minority of them are, old son.
Acknowledging that simple truth is not exhibiting 'disturbing
intolerance' of the young. It is facing up to reality.
Narey says his survey found that adults are increasingly frightened of
youngsters, and believe them to be a danger both to themselves and
others - which is one thing most people reading this would agree on.
Is it any wonder? If you live in an area terrorised by gangs, you might
call them 'animals'.
What word other than 'feral' better describes the swarms of hooligans
abandoned to their own devices by slattern mothers and absentee
'babyfathers'
No one crosses the road if they spot a crocodile of Boy Scouts coming in
the other direction. But nor does anyone in their right mind risk
walking through a scrum of hoodies hogging the pavement - not unless
they fancy a knife in their ribs.
If you've had your windows broken, your shed vandalised, your car burned
out and your front garden littered with empty cans of extra-strength
lager by some of these of these little darlings, you'd be forgiven for
telling a pollster that they ought to be shot.
Certainly, there appears to be scarce alternative sanction. Take them on
yourself and you're likely to get your collar felt.
How many times have we read of beleaguered householders snapping in the
face of intense provocation - and then being arrested and charged
themselves, while their young tormentors walk free?
The courts are reluctant to pass deterrent sentences on juveniles. I
regularly hear from frustrated cops who have arrested and re-arrested
some young toe-rag, only to see him walk away on each occasion with a
slap on the wrist, laughing in the face of the law, and immediately
reoffending.
There are reports of serial criminals appearing in court as many as
eight, ten, a dozen times before any meaningful action is taken against
them. Magistrates tell me their hands are tied by rules laid down by the
Home Office and the laughably-named Ministry of 'Justice'.
Our entire criminal justice system is designed to indulge young
offenders, rather than nip their inevitable life of crime in the bud by
intervening early and coming down on them like the proverbial ton of
bricks. No wonder they grow up thinking they're above the law.
Hundreds of you have written to me about my column last week on the
rising tide of scum in Britain, despairing at what has happened to once-
respectable neighbourhoods.
My thanks to you all, and I'm sorry I can't reply to everyone
personally. If you recall, I was careful not to blame the children. What
chance have they got?
One of my regular correspondents, Kerry Bacon, said she was reading the
column as she travelled up to London by train on Friday morning.
Opposite sat one of these Vicky Pollard lookalikes, supping a Bacardi
Breezer, accompanied by her unruly young kid, who answered to the name
of Saxon.
One of the characteristics of underclass is the daft names they give
their children. If you saddle a child with the kind of name you'd give a
Rottweiler, don't be surprised if he grows up behaving like one.
No doubt Martin Narey would accuse me of middle-class snobbery. He's a
paid-up member of the polytechnocracy, who graduated to Barnardo's via
the prison service and is a leading light of the Guardianista
establishment, which has created and nourished the social breakdown we
find ourselves having to contend with today.
He'd rather blame 'society' - by which he means Daily Mail readers -
than admit his own side's culpability.
But the problems have been created by people like him, who have built a
welfare monster which strips people of individual responsibility,
encourages their fecklessness and excuses their venality.
According to Narey's world view, the worst crime in the world is to be
'judgmental' - hence his latest ridiculous outburst.
In one interview, he even complained about newsagents which display 'No
More Than Two Schoolchildren At A Time' notices in their window. Try
telling that to cornershop-keepers sick of having their stock ransacked
by swarms of young thieves.
Before it changed its name, Dr Barnardo's was an august organisation
which ran hundreds of orphanages and care homes. They've all been hived
off.
Now it is just another part of the vast, Leftist, professional
charitable sector and prefers political campaigning and frittering away
donations on absurd, self-promoting surveys designed to prove 'we are
all to blame'.
No, we're not.
Mandy come dancing
Mandelson says he watches Strictly Come Dancing with a degree of envy,
and would love to be invited to take part.
You can just imagine Mandy and Reinaldo doing the Flamenco under
Brucie's watchful eye. 'Come on, my loves, give us a twirl.'
Strictly Come Dancing
Mind you, I can't see Mandelson making the final.
If he didn't get disqualified for lying on his application form, he'd
probably have to resign after the first heat for trying to nobble the
judges and rigging the phone vote. 'I'm warning you, I'm a personal
friend of the Director-General . . .'
Now Labour resorts to blackmail
Geoff Hoon, our fourth-rate Transport Minister, is trying to bully the
people of Manchester into voting for a controversial and unpopular road-
pricing scheme, which would cost motorists £5 a day - at a time they can
least afford it.
He says if they reject the plans in a referendum, they won't get £1.5
billion for new trains and other improvements which would bring much-
needed new jobs to the city.
This is a scandalous abuse of power and an affront to democracy, though
typical of the way Labour uses public money to buy votes.
Don't forget, it's not long since Gordon Brown promised to scrap road-
pricing plans after mass protests on the Downing Street website.
Let's hope that the people of Manchester overwhelmingly vote 'No' to
this scheme and remember Hoon's threats and Brown's lies when it comes
to the next general election.
* Mail reader Audrey Hodgson writes to me with the latest on the
divorce of Mr and Mrs Guy Ritchie. 'When Madonna moved to London, she
said she wanted to become more English. She is now an unmarried mother,
with three children by different fathers, one of them African. Job
done.'
* On Friday, I said those two marvellous Northern battle-axes,
Cissy and Ada, were played by Les Dawson and Peter Butterworth. As many
of you pointed out, it wasn't Butterworth, it was that fine actor Roy
Barraclough, best known as the landlord of the Rover's Return, in
Coronation Street. Sorry, Roy. My mistake. Incidentally, Cissy and Ada
are still doing a turn in cyberspace, thanks to the magic of YouTube.
Peter Butterworth, of course, starred in 16 Carry On films. Trust me to
mix up my Carry On with my Corrie.
Makes you proud to Bhs
British Homes Stores is being criticised for stocking a festive range of
nipple tassels, edible G-strings and something described as
'breastshaped stress relievers' alongside children's toys.
I know times are tough, but there's got to be a more dignified way of
turning a profit. One shopper, Mrs Alicia Moss, said: 'I'm not a prude,
but I don't expect this sort of thing in a family store like Bhs.'
My sentiments entirely, Mrs Moss. This stuff used to be exclusive to Ann
Summers and some of the grubbier stores in Soho. Still, I seem to
remember reading that even Boots is knocking out vibrators these days,
next to the Vicks Vapour Rub.
Call me old-fashioned, but some of us can still remember when British
Home Stores sold nothing more racy than winceyette nighties.
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