Editorial: Hoodies ban disguises a bigger problem

National media has suddenly picked up on it following comments made last week backing the ban by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott and Prime Minister Tony Blair. Prescott recalled being intimidated by a "gang" of youths wearing hoodies he encountered in a motorway service station. He was "saved" by his Special Branch minders. Blair spoke of countering the "loss of respect" in society symbolised by the "shopping centre thugs", saying he totally sympathised with the ban.

But amid this hysteria about young people wearing hoodies it's worth getting a little perspective. Young people have too often been demonised by blanket generalisations about the way they dress - and it has always been thus. From Victorian times, through rock and roll, mods, rockers, skinheads, punks and casuals, youth culture gets blamed for the ills in our society. Even Socrates bemoaned young people who "contradict their parents, talk too much in company, guzzle their food, lay their legs on the table, and tyrannise their elders".