Mothers must lead the fight against knives

[BellaLasagne]

www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/05/27/do2704.xml

Is there anything we can do?

Well, knives are not going to go away - people are always gonna carry them so all a mother can realistically do is advise her own sons to carry knives too, at least that way the playing field is equal sad but true. If you can't beat em join em.

Actually, ignore that remark, that was just me being gloomy and pessimistic.

I for one am gonna strongly encourage my kids away from the drinking culture. It would be lovely if we had a coffee bar culture here like the Canadians do - it's really civilised and obviously no alcohol involved which is what causes these things to flare up, not always, but most of the time.

Encourage kids to go to sports clubs, leisure clubs, youth clubs, church clubs, coffee shops, cafes, etc etc. But I am absolutely desparate to steer them away from pub life.

yes i agree, drinking causes alot of these fights, bring the age up to 21. i feel it would make a massive difference.

blame the mothers, that will do nicely

What about 'father's should take more responsibility for their offspring and set a good example'

Callisto, the article's calling on mothers because it's saying there are few male role models.

That is my point.

Yes, as mothers, we can vote people into office who are going to be serious about changing the laws dealing with crime.

don't see any reason why we can't do something to up the legal drinking age. would anyone have anything against that?

I suppose they saying let's work with what we have at the moment. Certainly, fathers need to be more responsible.

because the drinking age isn't the problem. the fact that there is no real deterrent to underage binge drinking, selling alcohol to minors or procuring alcohol for minors or to youths who threaten or harrass people to procure alcohol for them is the problem.

i was talking about this with two former cops - a father, now retired, and his son, now in the military - the other day on a beach as we had a picnic and our children/grandchildren played.

there is NO deterrent to being drunk and disorderly here.

there really isn't.

the cops said the law doesn't make that so, so most of the time, it's not worth their time to lift such individuals and do the paperwork involved with lifting such people.

so it's allowed to just go on.

and people, it's disgraceful to your country throughout the entire world. it gives britain a horrible reputation, particularly in europe. any euro will tell you this quite readily.

and the problem is, increasinly, being drunk and disorderly is leading to some very serious criminality.

quite expat, but what can we do then

I agree Expat. I honestly don't think that raising the legal age will help though. It is 18 now but so many under 18's are binge drinking (the 14 year old girl with liver damage reported in the news recently is a good example). Adults are having less and less influence on children these days and the police are seen as a joke.

Uriel - I think it is more important for women to bring their sons up to like women and treat them with respect. There is so much hatred of women by younger men and boys - more I think than when I was growing up in the 80's. It is chilling that the majority of teenage boys of certain backgrounds see women who wear short skirts as 'asking for it'.

The law is a joke, so you can't expect police to take it seriously.

I mean, people can start a deliberate fire and then try to kill the firemen and women who come to put it out.

I hate to have to say it, but I think my German ex h put it best, 'Expat, if people aren't policed, they go ghetto.'

For a lot of folk, this is now true.

The law is a joke, so you can't expect police to take it seriously.

I mean, people can start a deliberate fire and then try to kill the firemen and women who come to put it out.

I hate to have to say it, but I think my German ex h put it best, 'Expat, if people aren't policed, they go ghetto.'

For a lot of folk, this is now true.

The law IS a joke - I quite agree.

mothers are fighting a losing battle in a society where women are seen as inferior (at best).

i dont think the drinking age is an issue,i used to go out drinking when i was 14,but as my mother had allowed me the odd glass of wine at christmas etc i knew how to drink responsibly.i really dont get all this binge-drinking crap,all the pubs seem to sell those cheap shots and that,and young people seem to want to get pissed before they even go out.

all i know is kids/teenagers have no respect for authority any more,and if nobody is afraid of the police then they will just do whatever they want.

i think the age is a problem though, 14 year olds regularly get drunk round the local parks

I still don't understand why this is the mother's and not the father's responsibility. Maybe the problem is the fact that men aren't sticking around to be those role models. How can mothers be male role models? And why are mother's responsible for fathers' deficiencies. I would say that that line of thinking is where boys learn it's okay to not be responsible.

The drinking age in the US is 21 and it has stopped 14 year olds from binge drinking. I think the problem is more the culture of drinking than it is what age we are allowed to begin legally.

Oh, I had no problems getting hold of alcohol at 14 in the US.

What stopped me from binge drinking and going ghetto was the fact that I knew that if I were caught underage drinking in the US there was some serious punishment that came with that.

Same thing with being publicly intoxicated whilst 21+ - you will be arrested. You will get a huge fine and if you're on benefits, they will dock a portion of those to pay for your fine and if that leaves you to starve that is your lookout.

Ian Blair has come out with this before - a few months ago it was the responsibility of all citizens to stand up to anti social behaviour. Said after that poor man in Warrington was kicked to death outside his house.

Whilst I agree that parents (and I fail to see why it is solely a maternal responsibility) should discourage their offspring from carrying knives (the fact that this needs stating horrifies me) what REALLY pisses me off is this seems to be yet another abdication of responsibility from our most senior law enforcer.

It isn't the responsibility of parents to keep society as a whole safe - it is the responsibility of the police. Of course all parents have a broader responsibility to society to raise their children not to be knife wielding psychopaths but to somehow imply that they are solely responsible for the whole depressing picture of knife crime is, I think, wrong.

Also, it is a serious crime to sell or procure alcohol for minors. And for minors who try to harrass or threaten adults to buy alcohol for them, help for that adult is literally a 911 call away. The police will show up promptly and treat the young people who do this as criminals.

they don't even need knives though do they, that poor girl was kicked to death in a park by a drunk.

weren't the police on about officers having more power to harrass these groups of kids? why are we so crap at law enforcement in this country. the community officers just seem to want to make friends with them.

It's not just about pubs and bars, it's also about the ease with which kids can get booze almost anywhere now. Even the smallest corner shops sell alcopops and other stuff explicitly marketed at the barely 18 market (and if we use the teen magazines analogy we all know that the real market is 5 years younger than that).
A European drinks manufacturer is about to launch this product .
When we were kids you could ONLY get drink in supermarkets or from off-licenses attached to pubs - usually staffed by beady-eyed mums working evenings. And none of it was marketed at teenagers.
I think Rowan Pelling made some interesting points in the article. But can we lead the fight, without being blamed, as others say?