The ASBO ministers

We're a nation under siege. The enemy is our children.

Certainly, new Labour seems to have been attracted to the siren call of backwards Daily Mail-style pundits baying for a hard line on youth.

At least, that's if the assessment of ex-Youth Justice Board head Rod Morgan is anything to go by.

In the wake of the release of a King's College report on youth justice on Wednesday, he went public to attack his former employers for spending far too much time trying to lock up kids and far too little time tackling the root causes of youth crime and alienation.

What's this? New Labour taking shortcuts by focusing on easy, headline-grabbing initiatives rather than rolling up its sleeves and trying to get to the heart of the matter? Yes, people, it's business as usual.

But this is, of course, no joking matter.

It is said that a nation can be judged on its treatment of children. By any measure, Britain stands condemned.

It seems that the government's main "success" in this area, if such a word could be used, has been to cut the amount of time it takes for a youngster to go from charge to sentence.

Offending itself has not fallen. A raft of targets relating to the causes of youth crime have been missed.

But this should come as no surprise.

Vast areas of Britain have become post-industrial ghost towns, neglected by government and left to their own devices.

Communities, families and individuals have been crushed and forgotten by politicians more interested in implementing free-market dogma and chasing the votes of some mythical Middle England than forging a just society that caters for the most vulnerable.

Now, the results are coming back to haunt us.

Child poverty rates in cities and countryside alike remain among the highest in the developed world. The gulf between rich and poor yawns ever wider.

Our children are being born into a damaged, dog-eat-dog culture that celebrates wealth and celebrity and has pulled up the ladder on the rest of us.

One group of people in particular knows perfectly well the day-to-day impact of years of flawed government policy.

They see it every day in their jobs.

Yet, rather than being given the tools and resources with which to make a difference on the ground as part of a wide-ranging strategy to solve Britain's social problems, public-sector employees are faced by an assault on pay and conditions and job cuts.

Effectively, the workers who are actually charged with hitting the headline-grabbing government targets on youth crime have themselves fallen victim to a very particular brand of anti-social behaviour.

Britain's treatment of its children is due to be scrutinised by the UN committee on the rights of the child next month.
Its findings will certainly make interesting reading.

The question is, will anyone in Whitehall get their noses out of the gutter press long enough to see them?