A Tangled Web

Edge of the Abyss



Did anyone see Channel 4's Edge of the City programme last evening? It featured the lives of social workers in Bradford, covering a range of different challenges. The programme was originally banned in May because the section of the footage dealing with the problem of sexual grooming by young Asian men was deemed too inflammatory to be broadcast at that particular time. I suspect most of yesterday's interest centred on this problem (particularly acute in the Bradford area), but my primary interest focused on the story of 17-year old Matthew Spaven, who had been released from a young offenders unit to complete his sentence under a tagging order.



Bradford is an unusual city. It contains the United Kingdom's poorest postcode (BD5); it has one of the highest birthrates in the country; a large Asian population; and proportionately more people living below the poverty line than any comparable urban area in the country. I spent much of my young life in Bradford, and I have worked there as one of the city's army of social carers. I was, therefore, unsurprised with most of the programme's content, but the degree of latitude afforded to Spaven by selective authoritative figures had me squeezing my 'stress ball' with a considerable application of pressure.



Law and order has broken down in Britain: Spaven was just one example of the phenomenon of lawlessness sweeping the streets and lanes of our nation. Edge of the City portrayed the exploits of a spotty adolescent who thumbed his nose at the authorities, broke numerous curfew orders, continued his life of petty crime and treated the people entrusted with his welfare as if they were scum. His story was not 'touching', it was maddening in the extreme. Britain has had to endure nearly four generations of a disciplinary culture orchestrated by rampant liberalism. Spaven and millions of others are the resultant products.



Contemporary society is awash with talk of 'Human Rights'. Yet with 'rights' come responsibilities. If an individual is prepared to endlessly abrogate his responsibilities, it is only fair that consequential rights should also be removed. I make no apologies for my belief that people like Spaven need to be taken to a public spot and birched. Perhaps then they would have some scintilla of respect and decency.