Have you ever met a yob, Dr Reid?

The Home Secretary has no idea about real-life thuggery and how to deal with it, says loic rich

So, we now know what the new Home Secretary truly thinks about the curse of anti-social behaviour. Even though he has performed a U-turn for PR reasons, what he clearly believes is that residents should "stop moaning" and take action themselves.

I have an answer to John Reid's contemptuous appeal to the electorate: come and live in St Day, my village in Cornwall, where, despite residents giving up time and energy for the village youth, yobs rule. Here he'll find out for himself just how "taking action" might work out.

I would very much like to see Dr Reid approach a gang of up to 100 screaming thugs and ask them nicely to stop throwing bricks through an old lady's window. Oh dear, John, they're swearing at you now. What are you going to do? When they start throwing bricks, how are you going to defend yourself?

If John Reid thought the public should sort out anti-social behaviour, why are we financing a police service?

Over-restrain them and you'll be arrested for assault. You could try engaging - remember those communication skills! But wait, a 15-year-old hooligan has punched you in the face. Perhaps you should call the police - but you don't want to criminalise him, do you?

Maybe it's time to go home and think things over. But wait - the yobs are following! There are now 20 of them outside your living-room window, shouting abuse. Every day they will return - until you are forced out of your home, or are driven berserk and get taken away by the police for daring to threaten them back.

John Reid's comments were lazy and cowardly. We're now told his "stop moaning" campaign is officially abandoned. But if he thought, even for a moment, that the public should sort out anti-social behaviour themselves, then why are we financing a police service? Or does he mean we should form vigilante groups? In which case, he should be prosecuted for inciting paramilitarism. The only way to stop yobs is to get tough with Asbos, and to get tough with the parents.