You can see the thinking. Young people, heavily drunk, are turning up broken and bleeding in casualty. Therefore they must have a drink problem.
So they need to see someone.
But it demonstrates a woeful ignorance of youth counselling. Does someone in the Government think that counselling is something that young people can be obliged to undertake?
Have they never sat while a youth counsellor, making fearsome eye contact, patiently explained the importance of client self-governance, of negotiated contracts, self-directed involvement, ethics, integrity and the paramount need of freely given consent?
Do you have an agreeable personality? Are you altruistic, modest, friendly and sensitive to the need of others? If so, you may be fouling up your career.
Psychologist Dr Nikos Bozionelos of Sheffield University has carried out a study concluding that such people tend to assign a lower priority to their careers. Some step aside and make way for their colleagues. Conscientious workers miss out on success too, possibly because they over-concentrate on performing well and so overlook opportunities such as networking.
You can't conclude that just because your career is not doing too well that you are nice or hardworking, though. Another reason is that you might be neurotic. Thank you, doctor.
The police are ending a curfew in parts of a county Durham town. Why, you ask. Has it not worked? Au contraire, as they say in Seaham. It has worked very well. That's why it is not needed any more.
Durham Constabulary brought in the six-month curfew to tackle "rowdy youths". Officers say they have got their message across and won't be adopting a permanent ban.
This makes perfect sense. It is just the mirror image of the usual strategy driving public policy. Things that don't work, and are never likely to work, tend to be tried over and over again. So it kind of figures, when you come across something that has worked, to stop it straightaway. You can't fault the logical consistency.
