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.

Comments

[MP]

Was that a spitball? Off to the Gulag!

[thoreau]

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?

[Steven Crane]

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?

[smacky]

Steven Crane,

I'm not sure if crying babies qualify as "yobs".

[Smart Torontonian]

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?

[Number 6]

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.*

[Steven Crane]

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. 🙂

[Ben]

Whats the American equivalent of a yob? A gangsta or thug?

[mediageek]

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.

[Douglas Fletcher]

Where the hell does this word 'yob' come from? Anyone know?

[dhex]

"Whats the American equivalent of a yob?"

fratboys?

[mk]

Next they will attempt to outlaw
chavs

Come to think of it, I might be able to get behind that.

[Douglas Fletcher]

"Whats the American equivalent of a yob?"

Sports fans.

[smacky]

If I ever get married, I'm going to hire some yobs to throw tarts at my wedding (instead of rice).

[Douglas Fletcher]

Link and ye shall receive. Definition understood, thank you.

[Larry A]

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.

[Steven Crane]

smacky, you'd do better to have tarts for bridesmaids.

heh heh heh.

[smacky]

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. 🙂

[Steven Crane]

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.

[SR]

"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.

[Jennifer]

So how much longer before they install the telescreens?

[keith]

"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".

[Kris]

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.]

Hooligans. Ruffians. N'er-do-wells.

"There was me, that was Alex, and my three droogs."

[Stevo Darkly]

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.

[Hair Darkly]

hear = here

[Shem]

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?

[David]

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!

[Ruthless]

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

[Curmudgeon]

In Canadian English, yob = lout.