How do we stop the thugs from taking over? It is a dilemma. The police advise us not to confront wrong- doers in dangerous situations, but on the other hand, if we always wait for the police to arrive, the thugs and criminals know as well as we do that that can take some time.

Garry Newlove in Cheshire paid with his life for his decision to confront and challenge drunken yobs that had smashed the windows in an excavator he had hired. He was beaten and kicked to death.

In Glasgow recently a bus driver who remonstrated with youths who were terrorising passengers was stabbed. Every city and town in Britain can tell a similar story.

Some might say that Garry was stupid, some that he was brave. I just know that I couldn't stand by and watch my or anyone else's property being vandalised or destroyed without taking any action.

When decent men do nothing to stop the thug, bully or vandal, then only anarchy can ensue. It is a theme that has been explored in The Magnificent Seven and countless Clint Eastwood movies.

Just a generation ago, every man in Garry's street, and probably every woman too, would have come out to confront youths. But, in homes without discipline, without firm guidance and loving control, many parents have washed their hands of their own offspring and hope that society will step in and compensate, forgetting that they are part of that society.

Schools are prevented from any meaningful attempt to pick up the pieces by an inability to provide any sanction that might have an effect on the disaffected (predominantly male) youth that has been led to believe that their wants and needs are paramount.

They have no role models to replace absent fathers, as any males who might be inclined to teach in primary schools are discouraged from doing so by the omnipresent sick suspicion that anyone who is disposed to be kind to young children must be a paedophile.

By the time they encounter male teachers, their resistance to any kind of control or benign influence is in many cases set in stone and the task is made immeasurably more difficult.

The more of us who confront and challenge the morons and thugs, the more likely it is that we can turn things round.

It won't be overnight, but if we don't try, it will never happen.