The National Youth Agency: Comment - We've really got something

East Lothian Council started an initiative to shame people into thinking about their responsibility for their own environment by withdrawing street cleaning for a week from selected areas. A week later, it was hoped, a chastened populace would vow to carry their rubbish to the nearest available receptacle. It worked so well the council suspended the experiment after a few days, point well made.

Now, whenever comrades at the Community and Youth Workers' Union threaten industrial action, as happens occasionally, the cynics tend to question whether anyone would really notice. East Lothian's actions do prompt the thought - one might even call it the East Lothian Question - of what would really happen if all of a sudden youth work wasn't there? Would there be an increase in young people with low self-esteem and no accredited outcomes hanging around on street corners, not making a positive contribution and failing to achieve economic wellbeing?