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Baby Malcontents Meet Nanny State
For years, Tony Blair's government has been leading a fight against the "anti-social behavior" of its anti-social youth, or, in British, its yobs. The Times reports on the latest push:
Children below the age of 10 will be subject to antisocial behaviour orders [Asbos] for the first time under sweeping new powers to combat yob culture.
The "baby Asbo" or "Basbo" would see a troublesome child barred from verbally abusing neighbours or banned from parts of an estate.
More here. Scotland's First Minister backs "naming and shaming" of yobs here. Yobs throw tarts at a wedding party here.
|10.12.05 @ 12:54PM|#
I'd hate to find out what they'll do to the kids who try to have
pudding without eating their meat.
How can they have any pudding if they don't eat their meat?
|10.12.05 @ 12:55PM|#
We need some of those here in Chicago. Crying babies should NOT
be allowed on the El.
Am I right? linguist? drf? gaius marius?
Am I the only Chicago reasonoid who uses capital letters?
Smart Torontonian|10.12.05 @ 1:03PM|#
Ah typical government response. Government programs instituited
by Old Labour are destroying Britain so let's have New Labour
develop some more programs! Hurrah!
Ah and does anyone find it funny that the British folks who hate
Bush and attack Americans for voting for him voted for Blair?
|10.12.05 @ 1:03PM|#
Stephen Crane- You can always get off the el or switch cars. The
real menace is babies on airplanes. Surely we can build some sort
of hatch to 'space' shrieking infants. Or at least some sort of
soundproofed cargo hold.
*Prepares to duck epithets hurled by angry mothers.*
|10.12.05 @ 1:07PM|#
Well, smacky, I'm not sure cheeky eight year-olds count as yobs,
either, but the Crown thinks differently.
Man, Sherlock Holmes would have had a rougher go of it if the Baker
Street Irregulars weren't allowed to roam the streets like the
charming urchins they were.
Besides, YOU ride a busy train with two or three screechy babies on
it and no iPod to drown them out. You'll want them set to work in
the salt mines too. :)
|10.12.05 @ 1:12PM|#
Yadda, yadda, yadda...Airstrip One in top form...blah, blah,
blah.
Seriously. It's to the point that I can't even get worked up about
it any more.
|10.12.05 @ 1:44PM|#
Next they will attempt to outlaw
chavs
Come to think of it, I might be able to get behind that.
|10.12.05 @ 1:51PM|#
If I ever get married, I'm going to hire some yobs to throw tarts at my wedding (instead of rice).
Larry A|10.12.05 @ 1:53PM|#
Britain raised its last generation of children to believe they
weren't capable of managing their own lives, and therefore the
government would have to do it for them.
Now the grown children are having children, and the government is
dismayed at having to play the part of parents.
|10.12.05 @ 2:08PM|#
Steven Crane,
If the tarts are my bridesmaids, rest assured that it is I who will
be throwing them....on the ground, in a smackdown. No hussies
allowed. :)
|10.12.05 @ 2:11PM|#
You break my heart, smacky, and possibly that of Stevo Darkly as
well.
Though I am sure the good Herr Darkly would rather enjoy seeing you
throw down the tarts, provided you did it in jello.
|10.12.05 @ 2:14PM|#
"does anyone find it funny that the British folks who hate Bush
and attack Americans for voting for him voted for Blair?"
Except they didn't, since it's a parliamentary system. It doesn't
really matter how much the average Briton hates Tony Blair as long
as a majority of the voters in his riding and a majority of Labour
MPs back him.
|10.12.05 @ 3:14PM|#
"Whats the American equivalent of a yob?"
I vote for wiggers.
Maybe it's just my own mindset, but the term "Asbo" made me think
of ASVAB; and given that recent item (I think I saw it here; if
not, then at slate: http://www.slate.com/id/2127487/?nav=navoa)
about how the Army is allowed to increase to 10% non-GED-holders in
the ranks to meet recruitment goals, it seems that the "Army of the
1970's" may just be the solution to the "yob problem".
|10.12.05 @ 3:45PM|#
From Dictionary.com:
n. Chiefly British Slang
A rowdy, aggressive, or violent young man.
------------------------------------------
[Alteration of boy(spelled backward).]
From Online Etymology Dictionary:
yob
"a youth," 1859, back-slang from boy.
Jeff P.|10.12.05 @ 3:59PM|#
Hooligans. Ruffians. N'er-do-wells.
"There was me, that was Alex, and my three droogs."
|10.12.05 @ 4:33PM|#
You break my heart, smacky, and possibly that of Stevo
Darkly as well.
Though I am sure the good Herr Darkly would rather enjoy seeing
you throw down the tarts, provided you did it in jello.
A-ha! There I was, posting away on the "sex toys
cum nerds" thread*, and I thought I heard my name
mentioned over hear.
Somehow, Steven Crane knows me too well.
* Perhaps that could have been phrased better. Or perhaps not.
|10.12.05 @ 4:40PM|#
Americans have Juvenile Delinquents. We have a much lower
tolerance as a society for cutesy slang.
The Brits complain about our use of the language, but has anyone
else noticed how, given half a chance, they set themselves up to
ensure that half the people who hear them won't be able to
understand?
|10.12.05 @ 4:48PM|#
If the tarts are my bridesmaids, rest assured that it is I
who will be throwing them....on the ground, in a smackdown. No
hussies allowed. :)
Way to spoil it for the groomsmen, Smacky!
|10.12.05 @ 8:16PM|#
Fun-seeking curmudgeon that I am, I hate to be the first one
serious, but the War on Yobs will end the same way as the Wur on
Durgs and the War on Terror.
Tightening the screws is so NOT the answer. Nanny states, wherever
they are, need to go counter-clockwise a bit, otherwise they just
strip the threads rendering lids useless.
Channeling gaius marius here, it's a cycle:
1. freedom because of limited government
2. wealth because of freedom
3. buying more government with the wealth
4. everyone gets fat
5. adipose tissue causes boys to mutate into yobs
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