We live in a society where teenagers like that are deemed unable to decide who to have sex with (indeed, not allowed to have it at all), cannot smoke or drink, cannot vote - yet are considered old enough to be responsible for murdering others.

Isn't there something weird about this?

Is our system failing?

Well they are responsible to do all of those things of course. Many of them do have sex, do smoke, do drink, do know the difference between right and wrong. In that respect youth hasn't altered at all. What has altered is the media's diet for at first warning parents that paedophiles might be roosting in their lofts...their kids were in grave danger....and now telling us it's the kids themselves who are the threat. If you tell a young lad often enough he's a 'piece of scum' he'll start acting like just that. The Dunblaine massacre too initiated knee jerk gun laws which has seen gun crime and accessibility to firearms increase.

Will they ever get anything right?

Yes; surely we should educate them as early as possible about all these areas, the right and wrong (and why), the potential problems, the dangers... then encourage them to build their own morality as soon as possible.

That's how they did it in Holland in the 60's and 70's and I've never met such well balanced, responsible and grounded kids.

The education system in this country is shameful for one of the wealthiest countries in the World.

To remedy it would bring great benefit to society but to do so would mean some well off people would have to pay a tiny bit more tax and we can't possibly do that can we.

It is the older generation who are definitely at an age of responsibility who created and perpetuate the culture of "Me! Me Me!"

Society was killed in the 80s when it was decided there was no such thing, it is individuals and their families - "Me! Me Me! Pull up the drawbridge, turn on the CCTV and fuck you!".

The saving grace of things getting worse is if it gets bad enough the average idiot will realise the folly we create. How many more years, how much worse does it have to be?

The whole system is going mad, when the boys killer gets caught, what will happen? Life sentence or young offenders home with new id's in seven years time.

We have seen yesterday a Jehovahs witness (JW) more or less getting off scott-free for abusing a 18 MONTH OLD and was found guilty of 20 counts. Yet because of his faith, and JW's support the judge decides he gets community service, those are the scumbags that deserve to be put inside (even his sister was disgusted).

It just angers me about your case JK, as it is perfectly clear that the judge/media were determined to find you guilty yet he gets off scott-free and is guilty. I still do not the reason why. Is it because people are jealous of your success or do they not like confident positive people.

Are you going to the Notting Hill Carnival?

Kind Regards

Mike

To answer Mike's point, I honestly don't think JK was victimised because of any sort of jealousy. He was an easy target, whereas real criminals are not. And that's all that matters now, in this ludicrous society we've built. Meeting targets. Any notion of even handed justice seems long since lost.

I agree totally with zooloo's post. The foundations of the "Me Me Me" society were meticulously laid in the 1980's, and since then, we've built huge sprawling cities upon them and continue to do so.

I would be more than happy to pay a little more tax to remedy the situation. At least I would if I could be sure it wouldn't be lost in a sea of bureaucracy, or spent on speed cameras, enforcing the smoking ban, hunting down people buying dodgy fags from Eastern Europe and other such minutiae.