First Minister Jack McConnell seems to be comfortable playing the role of Mr Hyde, happily denouncing youth workers who criticise the executive's antisocial behaviour bill as having "vested interests" (YPN, 10-16 September, p5).
By comparison Euan Robson, the deputy minister for education and young people, is on the Dr Jekyll side, yet he still stands by the youth-specific elements of the antisocial behaviour bill.
"One of the key things we are trying to do with these measures is to tackle those persistent young offenders and break their persistent antisocial behaviour by intervening early enough," says Robson.
The aim of the bill is not to single out young people, he adds, laying the blame for that perception at the door of tabloid papers such as Scotland's Daily Record, with its frenzied anti-ned (ned is a Scottish word for yob) campaign.
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