How the Young Poor Measure Poverty in Britain: Drink, Drugs and Their Time in Jail

""These people, he said, are neither helped by the extra money the government has invested in social programs, nor affected by new law-enforcement measures intended to address the antisocial behavior that people across Britain identify as one of their biggest concerns. Mr. Blair's government has introduced a bevy of directives aimed at stopping activity that disrupts neighborhoods ? vandalism, petty thievery, harassment, even persistently loud music ? but does not necessarily warrant criminal prosecution. The orders forbid youths, say, from going into certain neighborhoods, meeting with certain people, going into town without their parents, staying out past a certain time, harassing their neighbors. But Wythenshawe has its share of residents seemingly immune to government intervention." (NY Times) Stories of prole life in the post-industrial English nanny-state."