The Kids are (not) Alright

I'm sure you've all read today about the two brothers from South Yorkshire who attacked other children in a sadistic attack.  They have been sentenced to an indefinite period of detention.  This sounds like a decent sentence until you hear they will serve a "minimum of five years".  

Being the UK Justice system that means they will be out in 5 years, be given anonymity and allowed to spend the rest of their lives as free men, like Thompson and Venables who murdered Jamie Bulger in the early 90s.

The pair, aged 10 and 11 at the time of the attack, threatened to kill their 9 and 11-year-old victims. 

During their 90-minute ordeal the victims were stamped on, forced to strip and hit with bricks. 

So who's to blame here? The offenders had a chaotic upbringing with their violent father, mother and five brothers.  They were shown "extreme" horror films and the younger brother had access to pornographic DVDs and smoked cannabis grown on his father's allotment. This may be extreme, but it's not uncommon nowadays for children to be brought up in a home of this nature. 

You might think this is a "big city" problem.  Only happens on sink estates.  Nothing to do with us.

I disagree.

I don't think it matters where you live. We have feral children in the village.  One in particular roams the streets, mother has no idea (or concern) where he is.  She has 4 kids from different fathers and the wee lad is just left to his own devices. 

With a bit of guidance I think he'd be ok (although he always has that wee glint of devilment in his eyes!) but there's no doubt he'll be in the new "superjail" at Peterhead before the decade is out. 

He's accumulated a gang of others with less than stringent parents (including my old friend Ms Audi A3's boy, who's never off the streets). 

We won't let our two out of the garden as I don't want them getting involved with them.  There's always the worry that your own kids, less "streetwise" than these bairns who have had to fend for themselves since they were toddlers, will get abused physically or mentally by these urchins.

It's a shocking indictment on the country, if we have this kind of thing in a wee village in Aberdeenshire, nowhere's immune.

Lord of the Flies house rules I guess.

Music tonight, another Scottish band for you - Franz Ferdinand and the excellent "Take me Out"