FROM little acorns do great oaks grow. I don't want to sound too extravagant, but one of the many satisfying things about getting into government is that you can then do the things you said, that the little germs of an idea dreamt up in opposition can be turned into something real and effective for people.

Take the issue of anti-social behaviour. I mentioned briefly in my column last week that the origin of all the anti-social behaviour laws was right here in Blackburn - to be precise in the office of Eddie Walsh, then chief superintendent of the town's police.

What happened was this. The police, councillors and I had for too long felt very frustrated by the inability of the courts to deal with what the law saw as low-level nuisance - graffiti, rudeness, threats - but which could, cumulatively and over time, literally ruin the lives of the victims. The criminal justice system as it stood was only capable of dealing with individual snapshots of bad behaviour, which in isolation from every other act of bad behaviour going on did not result in effective action or punishment.

When we got into government one of the first major laws I introduced into Parliament as Home Secretary was the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 which among other things got ASBOs - "Anti Social Behaviour Orders" - going.

Most welcomed them, but in their early days their take up by police, councils and the courts was slower than I had anticipated. This was after all, a new approach and things in practice do take longer to bed in than may appear in the heady, simpler days of opposition.

But now the ASBO system is working. My successor as Home Secretary, David Blunkett, has both simplified and strengthened the system. Police officers in town tell me even their threat these days can make a real difference. And today there's some further important improvements being announced.

Drug treatment orders can be added to an ASBO even if the defendant does not have a relevant criminal conviction. The new victims commissioner will cover victims of anti-social behaviour.

There will be new provisions for making the parents of under-10s (below the age of criminal responsibility) liable for compensation. And Blackburn with Darwen Borough is awarded a special status (though a bit of a mouthful) as a "Together Action Area" in recognition of the borough and the police's own efforts to step up the fight against anti-social behaviour. This will bring increased funding to help focus on the most problematic areas of the borough.

This new status is a nice compliment to Blackburn for leading the way in the first place against this scourge. More importantly, it shows that the political (with a small "p") process can work - individual complaints can lead to major changes. Above all it should mean fewer people with their lives ruined by selfish bad behaviour.

On the subject of bad behaviour, my own neighbours have been very good about having first a Home Secretary, now a Foreign Secretary, living next door.

They have been amazingly tolerant despite the disruption this can bring - including early starts. Last week I stayed in the UK the whole week - amazing, the first time for a month.

This week it's Madrid for a day (I write this as we come in to land), then Rome on Friday to sign the EU constitutional treaty.