Blog of Norman Ralph

I was listening to the Editors’ new album “An End Has A Start” and the opening track has a very interesting lyric/title which goes “…the saddest thing I have ever seen are smokers outside the hospital doors…” and it got me to thinking. Now, I am not usually found to spout too much social commentary on this blog, but I feel quite strongly about this issue.

This post is actually not about smoking per se, but on the slow decline of ambition amongst people in this county. Britain was founded on industry, on the ambition, work and accomplishments of individuals - but not just individuals, of the nation as a whole. This just isn’t true anymore. Take, for example, the title of this post. Is there anything more depressing and indicative of modern society than the sight of ill people killing themselves?

The news continued this theme of declining social values last night when it introduced the story of an eleven year old boy, shot dead by a teenager ina drive by shooting on a BMX bike! You can read the full story here. This shooting is just one in a long line of teenage murders. Murders committed by teenagers on teenagers! This is particularly prevalent on London and Manchester, but the most recent one happened in Liverpool. This whole culture and society is to blame. Usually, I am pretty good at coming up with off the cuff solutions to these problems, usually quite right wing and usually quit impractical. This time, however, I am at a loss. I think we may be at a point where we cannot prevent this from happening again. How can we stop this culture of violence and depravity when it is so far advabced and intertwined into mainstream culture and society. In fact, I would go so far as to say that mainstream culture is itself to blame. We are all to blame for this. We have stood back and allowed too many freedoms and not enough responsibility. As my mum said last night, “..it’s a pity we can’t transport them anymore..”

David Cameron, the Tory leader, suggested that we suspend the driving licence age for those who commit anti-social crimes. A youngster in Bedford was quoted to reply to this by saying “…so? We will just drive anyway…” I am out of ideas. I want to blame the parents, but what can they do if their children are out of control. I want to say that we should just lock them all away and throw away the key, go totally zero tolerance against all violent crime and anti-social crime in young people. Bring in mandatory life sentences for all violent crime. This sounds harsh, but ultimately we are going to need a deterrent that actually deters from crime. I slap on the wrist, an ASBO, community service orders have all been tried and have all failed so spectacularly that it’s actually funny. We need to crack down now. Before it is too late.

Unfortunately, I think we may have already missed the boat on this one. Maybe it is already a case of giving up and going home, starting again from scratch!