Gentlemen,

The UK government, and many others, have stated that absent fathers or lack of positive male role models in the community has a part to play in the the onset of violence among our youth.

Also...


Boris Johson has given a black man, Ray Lewis, the job of trying to cut this nonsense out.

(for those that are not) If you were a parent or in Ray Lewis' shoes what would you do?

What would you be doing now if you had a teenaged son, to ensure that he does not become caught up in it all?

As a member of the London Assembly, what policies would you out into place to prevent everyone else's children from becoming statistics?

Would push for African schools funded by the community not the government either that or a complete upheaval of the curriculum.

Would soon be sacked of course... odd thinking about it, they push for right wing ideals advocating separatism but don't want people to be self determinate within it. May as well tax migrants and use the money to line the pockets of the english natives, think 'part' of their problem is that they didn't build their nation, we built it for them so they're lacking a skill or understanding, a certain pride that someone would otherwise experience if they had built their own house.... off topic... but yeah, I'd try for African schools and a change to the curriculum.

Can't I?

If I had to advocate that the curriculum be changed rather than help promote the need for a separate schooling system for us as African peoples I'd simply have the facts reinserted into it where its been purposefully left out, would rather we have our own schools funded and run by the community, its the main problem out there... would be Afro centric but it wouldn't be in denial of the achievements of others, good to keep an open minded approach in study rather than promote a closed one.

Scout clubs would be another idea I'd hope to promote, something that K.F mentioned on here a while ago, would help balance those in single parent families... then I'd force people to attend community meetings in their respective areas as a condition attached to housing or some other benefit, elect a representitive who would stand for them or something like that.

If I had a teenage son I would make sure every thinking minute the boy had he was involved in something positive. Im a great believer in physical exercise as a way of maintaining discipline. So whether he likes it or not he would have to do a sport/ martial art/ boxing.

Id get him a job. He would come and work with me/ or someone I know in a some form of trade in order to give him a taste of what earning money on your own terms is. Saying that my friends boy had a part time job and still was out there robbing.

Get him a mentor. Uncle. Cousin. Someone you can trust that he can confide in. Not easily manufactured and a long term strategy unless life just throws that dice your way. Father cant play that role because daddy is not there to be friend and eggs up with his son. That can come later. Need someone who the boy can bounce his problems/dilema's off and give some guidance. Ideally an slighter older cousin who is respected.


Question 2. Now Ill know this will never fly but its whats needed. Id create a special anti gang squad with some long guns to kick in a few doors and get the guns. Simultaneously devote police resources towrads identifying and infiltatrating gun dealers. And have them out of business with ridiculous long sentences the same way the FBI dealt with the Mafia in the US. But this is assuming some uncomfortable stones dont get overtuned which may kill your plan before it start. I'd build 2000 youth clubs in London. All competeing with each other on an area/estate/street basis in a variety of activities.. and have annual comepetions in sports/ fighting arts/ business etc. In an African sort of organisational structure the individual clubs would be allinged to larger subsets. Not kill the area thing.. but channel it positively.

Lastly Id dip back into the history of England and charge anybody under 23 not working or in education a vagabond. Yeah you can get the free money but have to do something. If not go jail. Got no time to waste with this thing.

No gun tune. Anywhere. Hip hop or rap or rock and roll. Company playing that shit in a shop then somebody got to go jail. And Id change jail. Same programme of work or education 23 hours a day. In fact they can build the youth clubs. These youth clubs would be mandatory associations with obvious carrot's and sticks if not attended. Drastic measures for drastic times.

If we wait until our son's are teenagers to try and prevent them from "getting caught up in it all", then could it become the case of "the horse has bolted?". The success in seriously lowering the odds comes in raisng your children correctly from day one, surely.

Can this issue even be solved with "one policy-one problem" management. Isnt what we have here a breakdown of basic social dynamics, which culminate in a range of problems from teenage binge-drinking, to 12 yr old mothers, to stabbings and shootings amongst youths?

Unless we as population do not revert back to the basics which form functional social behaviour, then can we really expect a change in the breakdown of basic social skills amongst our children?

Right now if i had a teenage son who was like so many other teenagers out there, i think ive have more success teaching him how to fight in self defence as as well keeping him out of trouble. I mean that as well because the environment is what it is and if you live in a certain area, your child is more at risk right now. Sod waiting for governmental and law enforcement policies to kick in place, its clear many more of our kids will die before they take effect, it at'll.

However, to answer your question more directly Melissa, if i were in Politics i would look at the long term view. The rise of the "Loony Lefty" has much to answer for and the demise of their legacies would be high on my agenda. Such as all this nonsense about NOT smacking children EVER, and not being able to discipline children in school, (bring back the cane for real it did me no harm), i would make it law for young parents to attend parenting classes before and after birth, increase the pressure on childrens sexual education to lesson the amount of teenage pregnancies, spend time with the country who has the lowest teengae pregnancy statistics and understand why this is so, spend more cash on sports and recreational facilites for kids within the environment and within schools, recruit football stars etc to promote the long term successful relationship as being cool, toughen the sentences amongst minor crimes amongst persistant offenders, however my biggest concentration would be with the kids themsleves particualary targetting their self esteems, by consistently finding out what they want, what they need, and try to deliver these.

What would i do......

1. begin with developing a real and meaningful education contract between schools, parents and the student where each are held accountable when goals is NOT achieved.

2. Return meaningful learning to schools, and cut out the PC and target getting orientated crap currently being taught in schools today... too much meaningless rubbish being taught and it has to stop..

3. END with immediate effect the parents right to choose schools, and return to the system where schools select children from the locality to return to a more balanced intake and STOP this unnatural selection that is creating sinks schools..

4. end with immediate effect this stupid policy of not goaling children who commit serious crimes and stop issuing meaningless 'supervision' orders that isn't worth the paper it is written on...

5. invest or complete a root and branch restructuring of the probation service and then FUND it properly so that we have better supervision of people sent out on bail or released on license in the community... if this is NOT going to happen then BUILD prisons..but don't do nothing!!!

6. People on first offence should if appropriate have the opportunity [depending on the offence] to EARN their good name back... criminalising for life young people without reprevie is stupid!!

7. Black Lion has mentioned it, i will second it we [the community] need real accountablity and in that regard his idea of elected local people is a GOOD idea..especially if we can ELECT onto police committees and school boards...and cut out these wannabee jokers getting in via nepotism, racism and bribes...

8. Offenders sent to prison especially for serious crime should have TWO choices ...HARD Labour..or HARD education....only meaningful participation in either will EARN early release..participation in neither means serving the FULL jail sentence....

9. Government Should be for a FIX term set by law and NOT by Political leaders...that should be for 4-5 years followed by automatic election...

10. As a community we have GOT to stop voting for people based on their color ie Black, and vote on their record of service, we have got to STOP voting automatically for labour and use our vote tactically and as a Political BLOC! failing that creating and support a Party that expresses our needs and NOT labour/tory/ liberal etc etc

Ive just seen this post by Baby Girl and although its not solely the answer to this issue, it provides a good prospective on us needing to "get back to basics".


I've been thinking about this for a while and have come to the conclusion that we as black people lack in many cases is a good healthy dose of shame. In many cases (not all) we've become way too forgiving, way to understanding, way too liberal, way to individualistic and rebellious against wider society which has harmed us.

When I was growing up there was always a healthy dose of shame in my family not a Japanese level but still a lot. Therefore I knew I couldn't come to my parents when I was a teenager saying I was pregant. I couldn't bun a spliff or even smoke with my parents knowledge. I couldn't leave the house dressed like a hooker. My brothers couldn't bring home any old mampy white girl. I couldn't come home with poor GCSE results because after a good dose of shaming I would have to repeat them until they were satisfactory. My parents knew who I was hanging around with (invited them round, (asked me who they were, who there parents were etc) and I had a proper curfew. My parents weren't afraid to tell me who I wasn't allowed to be friends with . I knew I couldn't cause a ruckus on the bus home from school and I knew I couldn't loaf around Edmonton Green with a bunch of latch-key kids whose parents didn't care about them because all of these negative things would have brough severe shame on my family and consequently I would have been punished. I didn't even do things I could get away with behind their back because they instilled in me a sense of pride, fear and dare I say it snobbishness that prevented me from wanting to hang around 'bad' kids and follow them. There was another black family near me whose parents were even more rigourous, they wouldn't allow their kids to play with anyone whose family was broken or their parents seemed suspect, the dad would keep them occupied by signing them up to every activity and playing tennis with them every weekend so they didn't have time to loaf, a lot of the boys near me would say the kids were uppity but they've turned out very well and I think its the disdain their parents had for 'liberal' families that helped them.

Even as an adult my parents would be very angry with me if I became a single mother. My Yankee cousin has a baby for a very older man and eventhough she's still with the man she is under no illusion about the embarrament she has caused for our family to the point when she is practically shunned at family events (although her son is treated fairly as its not his fault) because her dad is deeply embarrassed about what his daughter has done. The younger kids have seen her treatment and will not follow her example. .

Nowadays just seeing the way the kids act on the bus home from school tells me that there's not a great deal of shame in their household. I know of girls from school who got pregnant underage and their parents eventually accepted it (my dad would have driven me to the abortion clinic then beat me because he found the idea of undereducated teenage parenthood intolarable). When a school-friend had a baby at 16 I couldn't pretend to approve and slowly distanced myself from her for I ddn't want boys to think we were birds of a feather I've known smart kids to come home with barely a GCSE and their parents seem ok with it (again I would've been beaten and made to do summer re-sits).

Excluding white people, many other communities seem to have a great sense of shame imbedded in their community (e.g orientals) which prevents their kids from causing problems out on road, we used to have that. Whats happened, how can we bring it back? I for one plan to inbed serious shame within my kids, I don't care whther others feel i'm making them uppity or insular. I honestly think it will help bring down the levels of knife crime, babymother/fatherism (some people wear these labels like badges with pride to show their fertility but I'd be horrified if I was referred to as a babymother or even a 'wifey'. We don't have to go as far as some of them Muslims with their honor killings but I think if more black parents were less liberal, we would see an improvement.