Opinion: Why? Because we haven't got a bus stop

The article brought back into my mind one of the most nightmarish experiences I have ever had with young people - as a researcher, I should add, not as a youth worker. This point is important, for I was there to watch and record, not to intervene.

A well-intentioned, but rather naive youth project had decided to support a package holiday on the Costa Brava for a group of seven lads aged 16 to 18. This, it was felt, would broaden their horizons, develop their respect for cultural difference and engender their social responsibilities and citizenship.

We set off on the 24-hour journey in a coach emblazoned with the catch line "Sun, Sea and Sangria", though the lads were more preoccupied with sex, sunbathing and sleep. When we arrived in Callella, they were perplexed that I asked a policeman the directions to our hotel in Spanish: why didn't he understand English, they asked. Within 24 hours, the boys were completely sunburned and a complete disaster with any girls. By the end of the first week they had resorted to eating only full English breakfasts, frequenting only English-speaking clubs and bars and priding themselves on their completely obnoxious behaviour towards anyone or anything they considered to be "foreign". One morning I discovered them sitting on a step in the alley outside the hotel revelling in impeding the passage of those heading to or returning from the beach. When I asked why they were all clustered on the step, one replied smartly "because we haven't got a bus stop".