State of the Nation...

Are we heading back to the dark ages? Has our progress throughout the years finally come so far that we are being dragged back into the past, when lawlessness was rife, and harm could come to any who strayed too far from the safety of their homes?

Because for those of us that live in inner cities and large towns, we are being denied the freedom of movement at night, with gangs of feral youths, of which the supposed fairer sex, are increasingly making larger numbers. Combined with their extreme violence that far outweighs the male members of these gangs.

Two weeks ago, as is my want, I went to the local hostelry for refreshment, as is usual on a friday night. An extremely pleasant evening was spent in good company, and a fair few pints were quaffed. At the end of the evening we leave en-masse and head for the bus stop, to catch the last bus back to our homes. This evening however things were to change, whilst waiting for the bus, a couple of teen girls swaggered by, and seeing us at the bus shelter, decided to have a laugh at our expense.

Now maybe a couple of the lads were silly, after all it seems ill-advised to actually try to communicate with these neanderthal dunderheads, and once the harridans from hell realised that whilst certainly we were a wee bit merry, our intelligence far exceeded their own, and in the ensuing "game of wordsmiths" they were severely out classed.

Now as a witness to these word fisticuffs, I had assumed it was just idle banter and the girls would walk away, but no! They took umbrage that we as mere middle aged men had the cheek, gall and sheer audacity, to show them up for fools.

They then screamed "peedo" at the lads who had talked to them, and before we knew it we were surrounded by about 15 to 20 baying youths of both sexes, up to the bus arriving and us starting to alight, it was all foul mouths and gesturing from them, until the last three got on the bus at which point the youths attacked, hitting a couple of the blokes. For no other reason than they were goaded into it by the girls of the gang.

They did attempt to slow or stop the bus, by running in front of it, but the driver who seemed to be an old hand at this game of chicken, just put his foot down and was heard by all near him to say " I don't do brakes for scum", which gained him some applause.

Have things really changed that much, has family life, education and society slumped to such depths, that these gangs really are in charge of our streets in the evening?