“Anti-social behaviour” is simply a dustbin for things the state wishes to suppress but which are far too vague to criminalise directly. So they criminalise it by the back door - issue an ASBO, then if the ASBO is breached convict and imprison on a balance of probabilities. This isn’t palm-tree justice, it is the stuff of the totalitarian state.

What I find really worrying is the enthusiastic willingness to demonise and persecute young people.

What is wrong with “teenagers hanging around”? Don’t Blair and Clarke believe in freedom of association? Or freedom of movement? Apparently not. Though the Courts (thus far) mercifully do.

With “teenagers hanging around” we have conduct which is neither illegal nor even morally wrong. It is normal, reasonable and harmless. If people feel threatened or affronted by it, then I suggest a trip to a psychiatrist.

(By the way. How is it that it is acceptable to pour bile over young people, but not blacks and Asians? Is it because blacks and Asians vote? And occasionally riot?)