Don't you just love officialdom? Especially bureacrats who live in their ivory towers based in Camden, for instance. Ones who have threatened families that they will have an ASBO slapped on them if they let their kids continue to play football or other ball games."Children have been allowed to play ball games in the courtyard of the estate, which is close to Hampstead High Street, since 2004".
But that has been stopped as there have been far too many complaints about the noise of the kids. The Lib Dem council, who, incidentally hands the highest number number of ASBOs in London. Some of the families are, understandably, worried about putting their tenancies at risk by complaining about this. The council has asked "politely" that the kids use soft balls (??) between the hours of 8am-9pm. But that has not "been adhered to".
The Department of Health has highlighted the fact that obesity has risen from 9.9% in 1995 to 13.7% in 2003 for kids. And yet over-zealous councils rather like Camden put people in a no win situation. Resorting to draconian methods is extreme to say the least and will result in criminalising and victimising more kids and young people and for what? Playing football and ball games. Where are kids meant to play? Does Camden want kids to vegetate in front of their PCs, televisions and play stations? With green spaces being sold off to the highest bidder, ditto school playing fields, swimming pools closing and public spaces overall in urban areas dwindling.
I was brought up in a housing estate in the West Midlands during the 1970s/1980s where kids played football and other games. It would have been very odd if kids weren't playing games in the streets and playing field. There was no curfew stipulated by the council nor notices up saying "no ball games".
The Lib Dems, the Tories in canary yellow, are playing New Labour at their own opportunistic and populist game in regards to clamping down on so-called anti-social behaviour and it being a vote winner.
2 comments:
It is good to catch the Lib Dems out as the right wing shits that they truely are.
BUt of course they couldn't be issuing ASBOs if New Labour had not introduced them, and for me they are as emblematic of New Labour as PFI, as supression of social non-conformity seems to be a particularly strong feature of Blair and Brown's policies - mistaking Alf Garnett for the true voice of the working class.
All we need to do is get Brasil, Argentina, Germany, Italy etc to also ban their kids playing football in the streets and England will be on a level playing field for the world cup. It has always been a problem that foreigners cheat by practicing between games, instead of beering it up and selling their life stories to the tabloids.
But what really does worry me is what kind of society this is becoming. Kids kept indoors and not allowed to go out and play. I mean, oh dear I gonna be saying next, "in my days"... but kids and teenagers would hang around, chatting, smoking, playing music, being loud, annoying and generally being teenagers.
Is that going to be disallowed and ASBOsed? It is all about growing up instead it is now being controlled and banned.
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