how could they ban them? And football(soccer) is great, I love watching it, the only sport Ill watch...

our police are twice as hard because if they want to kill someone they have to do it the old fashioned way.

Tell that to Jean Charles de Menezes. Or don't, as he won't hear you anyway, on account of the fact that the police shot him in the face, seven times!

I don't know if it's still the case, but back a few years the police never even drew their truncheons, as it meant filling in forms. So they used their rather sturdy police-issue torches to hit people with instead.

Did i read spastic there?Toilet you are soooo against disabled people.

Or the poor old lady who i saw getting searched and being humiliated in front of people in central London because some daft tourist left a shopping bag in front of a Whitehall building.

The English police are a fucking nightmare. Unfortunately, most normal, upstanding, rational and law abiding people don't want to become police. It's a generalisation, but the general conception of police here is that you only join the police if you want to bully people.

There's a huge issue here at the moment with recruiting non-white police officers. Very rarely do non-white English people want to become police officers. We've got a lot more Black officers now, but there is an incredible dearth of representation for the other minorities in Britain. Ideal-world scenario, the police could be anyone. However, not living in an ideal world, I think the police should represent the cultures they're 'protecting'. Don't get me wrong, there're a lot of good eggs in the Police (I worked for the police for ages, should that statement need qualification - I wasn't an officer though, 'twas an administrative role). However, there are an awful lot bigoted knobbers. More of them than is possibly healthy think nothing of using terms like 'raghead' and that kind of thing. I'm sure the Brits on the board have seen the numerous reports in the wake of the Steven Lawrence case regarding the 'institutional racism' of the police here. It's revolting.

This might seem tangental, but unfortunately, the sort of thugs out there kicking the shit out of Fritz aren't getting caught on the streets here because a lot of the thugs are pretty much the same people as the police. Again, it's a generalisation, but police victimisation is directed towards hooligan twats too rarely (ie, not all the time and consistently).

Regarding our thugs, I think we have got a lot better over here. One thing I'm most impressed with is the organisation of hoodlums in local derbies. Generally the people who want to go and have a ruckus with the other side are now in touch with the heads of the other team's thuggish supporters - I've lived in various heavily football oriented areas, and there've been several ocassions where I've been ushered out of a pub because it's where two teams of hooligans are planning to meet. That is to say, they want to fight, which is fair enough, but they don't want people who haven't decided to enter into the fight to get caught in the crossfire. Honour amongst theives, maybe, but I thoroughly applaud the thugs who are clever enough to realise that they won't get arrested if they keep their fights inandamongst themselves.

I've seen the play(wich was also shown on tv) about the Steven Lawrence report and i believe it should be shown every year on the BBC.Things seemed to have improved a little untill you walked down the streets in more ethnically mixed areas.

english cities have so many gangs of thugs constantly making life hell for decent people, it just pisses me off a bit when all the attention is put on the football hooligans who are trying to fight likeminded thugs rather than the kid who looks at em the wrong way on the bus. in my city its such a daily thing, to have to avoid certian areas and situations just to not get into a fight, and the cops and politicians seem to just want to stop the hooligans so that the massive multi billion industry that is football doesnt suffer. they should take the bus into the city about 10pm on a saturday night or try and get a taxi at 3am and see that its a constant daily problem for everyone and not just a now and again thing that happens after matches.
im so glad to be in japan now where you never see blokes fighting, never have to worry about which way your gonna walk home or how you look at people.

i'll tell you what the problem is, it's the damned working classes don't know their place anymore!

Aye. In my day we had stones boiled in water and we were lucky to get that. Nowadays they've got all their segamegasystems and all that dross. Spoiled the lot of 'em. Bring back the Birch, that's what I say.

i can't think of a single reason not to bring back the cane

Rainforests.

And probably global warming.

You 'ad STONES? With yr water? Was it yr birthday or summat? Ehh, I tell ya, when as we 'ave our breaks at t'factory, Mr Arkwright lets us 'ave our water 'as it comes', which is straight out of a puddle with a straw. Champion rainwater, mind - the soot 'n' all makes it taste just right. He says it's all we're fit for, and 'appen he knows best, as he's the boss.

What do you mean, 'bring back' the birch? Oop north it's used three times daily, an' that's jus' for bein' good. 'Appen you got it lucky down there. Warm water for your bath too, it wouldn't surprise me to find out.

Oops, looks as like today's 50p in the 'lectric meter's about to run out, so it's best as I log off for a bit.

'Appen.

get back down the pit you oik! and that other little man can fetch me some supper, i'll take it in the drawing room.

Fiff-tay paaay? In maaay deeey it 'twere (etc, etc)

trunchens wrapped in towels in the cells. right good for making shoplifters think twice.

as far as the working classes go. tish and fipsy. run along there good man and eat some of that there mud.

I thought English and Turkish supporters got in a huge brawl? High or not.

So sexy, huh?

Mehmed V was a lame Sultan though. But one ugly son of a Turk.

Oh my!