Boy, 11, is shot dead in car park

[Lampman]

Just wondering what the total cost is for all the funding for Youth Clubs and the like nationwide.This money was provided to encourage youngsters to come off the streets and find useful pastimes.Would the money have been better spent in other areas e.g better policing of our streets.
Even with the facilities provided kids still roam the streets putting themselves and others at risk.
Has the great experiment failed?

[Guinness]

You only need to look in this weeks observer...two kids chucking concrete slabs off the top of lar-de-dars...slabs were so big that one actually crushed a Ford Ka and wrote it off....

Punishment....Police Caution!

Point is that slab could very easily have killed some young lad walking home from football practice...

[Eric]

The story about the murder and the increasing incidence of violence in the UK made the morning news on CBC (Colonial Broadcasting Corporation). It was a relatively long discussion about violence in urban areas of England. What surprised me is that a suggested solution to the problem is raising the drinking age to 21. Is this all that they can come up with?

[Lampman]

Raising the legal drinking age would not have saved the little lads life.Alcohol abuse is a factor in the usual town centre mayhem seen up and down the country,but so is drug taking.What do we do about that, raise the age limit?
Whilst in Victor Meldrew mode I can only repeat the social engineering that we have seen over the last 20 or so years has failed.
Youth club workers seek to engage youngsters in useful pastimes,exchanging views on life,perhaps steering them in the the right direction.
The reality is somewhat different ;youngsters(as it ever was)prefer a background noise of 100 +Db.They use the clubs as a meeting place and views may not be the only things exchanged.
Then at the end of the session they are released onto the streets and as I have said before they don't all go home to Mum and Dad and a cup of cocoa.
I am not clever enough to have the answers.I can only relate to my own past experiences,I was lucky in the aspect that my parents cared about my behaviour if they hadn't I still got disciplined at school.Then later as I entered employment any youthful cockiness was soon overcome by the reactions of older workmates(many ex service men amongst them.)
Today we seem to have lost our collective way kids rule the roost.
Earlier postings about the breakdown of parental control are correct but this is not the only reason.We are a molly coddled nation,which promotes the idea that you don't have to strive to achieve success,'just collect your dole mate do a bit on the side'.
Not all youngsters are bad,there are many more living worthwhile lives who are a credit to their parents,they will enrich the country.
Unfortunately it is not these who are the worry,it's the Bmx riding hoody,who may or may not be tooled up and heading your way.

[Margaret Pilkington]

In days gone by the teens would have gone to the church youth club, or the scouts,or the sea cadets.etc......but these organisations are no longer seen as 'cool'...remember peer group pressure on children is huge.
Older guys may get the younger children to carry dangerous items(drugs, knives, guns).....this gives the younger child some kudos, maybe some cash/drugs....and the older guy is safe in the knowledge that the young child will not be prosecuted, or serve a jail term because he is deemed to be under the age of responsibility. I think this has got to change....though I am not sure how. We have to take away the 'glamour/kudos ' of carrying a deadly weapon....again, I do not know how this could be done, but until we do then I fear there will be more young boys and maybe even girls slaughtered in this ugly and meaningless manner.

[Lampman]

Just watched the Liverpool v Toulouse match,what a moving gesture by the club to the young lad's family.Liverpudlians have always been big hearted this reafirms it.

[BERNADETTE]

Originally Posted by Lampman

Just watched the Liverpool v Toulouse match,what a moving gesture by the club to the young lad's family.Liverpudlians have always been big hearted this reafirms it.

What was the gesture? I found the people from Liverpool to be great when my grandson was a patient at Alder Hey, the nursing staff were just terrific

[shillelagh]

Originally Posted by BERNADETTE

What was the gesture? I found the people from Liverpool to be great when my grandson was a patient at Alder Hey, the nursing staff were just terrific

BBC SPORT | Football | Europe | Liverpool 4-0 Toulouse (5-0)

His mum & dad wore their everton shirts and they played the z cars theme. No i didnt watch it - im trying to sort out a meeting on thursday.

[Lampman]

The whole crowd applauded the family ,played the Z cars theme and then You'll never walk alone,very emotional.

[cashman]

Originally Posted by Lampman

Just watched the Liverpool v Toulouse match,what a moving gesture by the club to the young lad's family.Liverpudlians have always been big hearted this reafirms it.

agree i have nothing but affection for scousers, spent a fair bit of time in liverpool n always found them funny,but very caring people.

[BERNADETTE]

Originally Posted by Lampman

The whole crowd applauded the family ,played the Z cars theme and then You'll never walk alone,very emotional.

Enough said, You'll Never Walk Alone says everything, I could cry thinking about it.

[SPUGGIE J]

Originally Posted by BERNADETTE

Enough said, You'll Never Walk Alone says everything, I could cry thinking about it.

Kleenex on its way.

[jackyalex]

its a shame poor lad,i dont understand how guns are getting into the country and into the hands of kids

[Eric]

There has been a lot of talk on this discussion, and in others about "what has happened to todays youth." But there have to be bright spots; there are great kids out there. Today in Kingston, 14 yr. old Natalie Lambert swam Lake Ontario. She swam the 57 kilometers from Sacket's Harbor NY to Confederation Basin in Kingston, becoming the youngest person ever to swim the lake, and she did it in the fastest time. She did it not for the record book, but for charity, for a local swim club for young people with disabilities. For the last part of her swim she was joined in the water by her sister Jenna. Last year Jenna made the same swim for the same charity. Jenna is crippled, she walks with difficulty on crutches. Their parents were behind them and with them all the time. What wonderful kids! What a great family! And what an example they set! Kingstonians are proud of their achievement. There are great kids out there, and it is reassuring to know that.

[BERNADETTE]

Originally Posted by Eric

There has been a lot of talk on this discussion, and in others about "what has happened to todays youth." But there have to be bright spots; there are great kids out there. Today in Kingston, 14 yr. old Natalie Lambert swam Lake Ontario. She swam the 57 kilometers from Sacket's Harbor NY to Confederation Basin in Kingston, becoming the youngest person ever to swim the lake, and she did it in the fastest time. She did it not for the record book, but for charity, for a local swim club for young people with disabilities. For the last part of her swim she was joined in the water by her sister Jenna. Last year Jenna made the same swim for the same charity. Jenna is crippled, she walks with difficulty on crutches. Their parents were behind them and with them all the time. What wonderful kids! What a great family! And what an example they set! Kingstonians are proud of their achievement. There are great kids out there, and it is reassuring to know that.

You are quite right Eric, the problem is we very rarely hear about them. There is a young lad on Accy Web who has just got loads of GCSE'S(can't remember how many off the top of my head) and his mum was badly hurt at New Year, how hard must that lad have had to work to help look after his mum and study for his exams? The problem is that the kids who are bad get rewarded when they are good and kids who behave get miffed and who can blame them? Proirities are all wrong!