Yob culture
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Our dedicated teachers deserve greater respect
THE shocking, terrifying killing of Ann Maguire, an experienced, much loved teacher, has made the nation aware of how important it is not to take teachers for granted. It is tragically sad that it has taken this noble teacher’s death to make the public conscious of this because, let’s face it, there are too many…
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A killer in the classroom
Is it possible that violent and unruly children pose a bigger problem than schools dare admit? Having taught for more than 20 years in various comprehensives, I can honestly say that there has been no more shocking news about the profession in the past couple of decades than the death of Anne Maguire, a…
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Why local schools are the solution to knife crime
Brooke Kinsella, the Eastenders’ actress, whose relative, Ben Kinsella, was stabbed to death in London recently has produced a report for the government arguing that we must have lessons in school on knife crime. This is an idea I supported in my book,Yob Nation, but since then my thoughts have developed, having examined a great…
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Rewarding the bad, punishing the good
‘Oi, you little c**t, why can’t you hurry up you slow coach?’ I heard a mother say to her son last week outside a swimming pool changing rooms. An eight-year-old boy was doing his best to stuff his wet towel into his bag but it wasn’t fast enough. A little later, he started banging a…
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A pub crawl worth toasting
IT IS A SUCH A beautifully simple idea that I am surprised no one has thought of it before — to travel from the southern-most point of Britain to the most northerly sampling as many pubs as possible in between. Ian Marchant has written a digressive diary describing a delicious, drunken romp across Britain during…
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Sorry Mr Reid, we’ve every damn right to moan
You might expect John Reid to know a lot about the vile culture of violence that has disfigured our country and made it feel less safe than at any time in living memory. Parts of the Home Secretary’s constituency on the eastern edge of Glasgow are notorious. Gangs of adolescent louts with knives have created…
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The Many Faces of British Yob Culture – an interview by Sheena Hastings
"YOB: noun, a colloquialism from the mid-19th century, which is back slang for BOY. Originally it meant a boy. Now an uncouth, loutish, ignorant youth or man, especially one given to violent or aggressive behaviour, a hooligan." The Shorter Oxford Dictionary AT the age of 11, Francis Gilbert saw his dad attacked by a yob.…
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Asbo City
Bill Pitt, the former head of Manchester council’s Nuisance Strategy Unit and now the leading expert on asbos in the country, is a wiry and intense man. ‘The yobs in Manchester are frightened of us,’ he says proudly. ‘We have a reputation for being callous, brutal, obsessive and single-minded. This is an important myth to…
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Yobs on the job
The stereotypical image of a yob is the hoodie on the streets hurling stones or abuse at passers-by. But some of the worst yobbery goes on in the workplace. And when I compare the testimony of people attacked by thugs on the street with those who were the victims of attacks in their offices, factories…
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Stuart Jeffries on Francis Gilbert’s ‘Yob Nation’
When Sorbonne students look across the channel before demonstrating in the Latin Quarter, they realise how little France should aim to copy our economic miracle. And how much there is to fight for on the streets. Francis Gilbert’s new book, Yob Nation, is wonderful to read in this context. It argues that when Britons take…
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Yob Nation Extract — Part 1
The firework exploded at our feet in the grotty north London playground. Three white boys snarled with laughter from behind the hoods of their green parkas. One of them chucked another firework in our direction. It fizzled and snapped. My brother and I retreated, but my father, in a tough-guy Marks and Spencer anorak, approached…