Teenagers - they're just as bad as ever

WHEN I read about Lancashire police using new powers to fine children as young as 10 yesterday, I was appalled at this seemingly draconian step.

But only for about three nanoseconds.

Because I quickly remembered how much I hate a lot of teenagers.

Fining the bad ones is the latest weapon police are using against those anti-social yobs who gather in groups of 5,000 or more to hang around the Spar, getting drunk and gawping at passers-by.

Hordes of noisy, slack-jawed oiks are for the high jump now. If they are caught getting up to no good, they could be forced to pay £40 - or, more likely, mum and dad will have to fork out. Then rest assured the parents will mete out their own version of justice to the young tearaways.

What a result.

I'll be the first to admit I got up to some high-jinks as a teenager.

In fact, everyone I went to school with did the same.

Looking back, some of the things we did were pretty bad, transcending the realms of teenage mischief and bordering on petty crime.

Of course, I never saw myself as "bad" or as a "criminal". But I would be embarrassed to admit to some of the nonsense I got up to as a kid.

Mind you, there were some really bad lads who didn't really care one way or the other if they were caught. And a telling off from their mum would go in one ear and out the other.

Today, their names crop up from time to time in the pages of this very newspaper. Alongside words like "magistrates" and phrases like "remanded in custody". Some lads are just plain naughty.

But you know something? Things are exactly the same today as they were back then. Most youngsters want to have a laugh and you occasionally get some going too far.

You might read about how kids on the whole are getting worse, carrying knives and paying no heed to the law. But I'm sure some readers remember the same things being said about teddy boys in the fifties, mods and rockers in the sixties and punks in the seventies.

Kids haven't got any worse. They're the same. The only thing is, we've changed. We've grown up. And now we are in charge, we want to move the goalposts

I'm not moaning though. I'm all for changing the rule book to suit me.

I welcome the new measures by Lancashire police to fine the little rascals when they get up to no good.

Because this huge step will put paid to the brats running amok - just like I used to do.

You might think that this makes me a hypocrite, because I did one thing as a teenager, and now say another as an adult. But surely that's called progress - each generation can prevent the next making the same mistakes. Indeed, each generation has a duty to prevent the next making the same mistakes.

And even I am a hypocrite, so what? At least I'll be a hypocrite with no more fear of having my fence kicked in or my wheely bin set on fire.