Most young people are industrious

THE revelation that a majority of us of the older generation perceive that teenage children today are running riot and are out of control is not really representative of the true facts.

Yes, we do have a minority of spoilt and selfish brats, but on the whole most teenagers are industrious and are not the rebellious horrors sometimes portrayed by the media.

Sadly, there will always be the inner city hard core gangs of thugs and those with little intelligence who reckon that society owes them a living, and that brawling and being high on drugs and drink is the ultimate achievement – unfortunately I don’t think that will change.

However, I do think that teens need to be given rules and boundaries so that they know what is expected of them and this is what unfortunately seems to be lacking in parental and school guidance.

If one watches the TV series The World’s Strictest Parents on BBC3 they select some of the most foul-mouthed, rebellious teens they can find, but after being housed with strict parents in different cultures the children do seem to respond and come to realise that the whole world doesn’t actually revolve around them and that there are consequences to their actions.

An elegant young lady

From: Rev Bruce Le G. Petfield, Maple Road, Bridlington.

I REFER to Tom Richmond’s column (Yorkshire Post, November 5).

Just imagine the reaction by much of the so-called fourth estate if the Duchess of Cambridge had turned up in the sort of attire Mr Richmond felt would have been more appropriate.

It was sufficient that she was there along with her husband to indicate clearly support for action to alleviate the suffering of the famine in East Africa. To what extent were their token actions in packing created for the purpose of a photo opportunity?

Even accepting current practices of the casual approach to dress, I’m sure that most of your readers appreciated both reading about, and seeing the young couple’s token activities in packing and derived pleasure from seeing such an elegant young lady.

Fuss that is not needed

From: Maxwell Laurie, Cockfield, County Durham.

WHY all this fuss over the playground mountebanks outside St Paul’s Cathedral?

A group of people with nothing better to do (except, I believe, in one instance, to feed a cat) have camped in the equivalent of my front garden and blocked the road outside. With characteristic British tolerance they have been left to play their little games for a week or more but now they have been politely asked to leave.

I understand that they have declined and instead threatened violence if kindly but firmly removed.

There can be no need for eviction orders and similar legal procedures. If they had closed the snow gates at each end of the A66 and camped in the highway between, they would have been removed in double-quick time.

Where is spirit of Thatcher?

From: Philip Smith, New Walk, Beverley.

IT is the worst of times. David Cameron has capitulated to the unions over public service pensions and now we know he is no better than Tony Blair, Gordon Brown or John Major.

The old deal was better than the private sector pension provision. David Cameron then freely admits in Parliament that the new deal on offer is fairer than the private sector and yet supports it.

Where is the spirit of Margaret Thatcher? She was not to be bowed by the miners’ strikes that would cripple this administration.

Pick words carefully

From: Michael Perry, Baildon.

MAking generalised comments about people is wrong and can lead to racism. So why do the media always refer to problems caused by Muslims (of course not all, but a small number of Muslims) as problems involving Asians?

Asia is the largest continent in the world. Chinese, Japanese, Sikhs, Hindus, Malaysians....are all Asians. The programme I watched – Despatches – about the horrendous problem with men, predominantly Pakistani Muslim men grooming young white girls for sex, was horrific.

There is without doubt a huge disproportionate number of young British-born Pakistani Muslim men involved in this sick crime. But the programme usually referred to this as an Asian problem, as the media invariably do when it comes to other stories revolving around Muslims.

If I was from Asia and not a Muslim I would be very upset to read about such stories.

The state of the art

From: David T Craggs, Sand-Le-Mere, Tunstall, East Yorkshire.

WHEN seeing the 12 posters produced for the 2012 London Olympics in your newspaper, I made the mistake of studying them before reading who’d produced them.

I thought that those who had made the choices, you know, the faceless and nameless ones, had contacted some of the capital’s comprehensives and asked their art departments for some entries from their lower grade GCSE art students.

My feeling was “good for them ... it will give the youngsters some sort of recognition in the society in which they live”. Then I got a shock.

The 12 posters had in fact been produced by some of the country’s so-called “top” modern artists – you know, the ones who produced sculptures of dirty beds and lights flashing on and off.

When the posters were revealed on television one was also shown that had been produced for the 1948 London Olympics. Needless to say it beat most of the 12 into a cocked hat.

I certainly hope that no one received a fee for such rubbish. So what would I like to see happen?

I would like to see all 12 posters dumped in the nearest skip, and a new competition organised, open to all the nation’s schoolchildren, to come up with something better, as I’m certain they would.