A MAJOR contributor to the explosion of street crime has been this middle class idea of environment being the factor that decides how an individual turns out.

The “nurture-nature” argument has been uppermost in the minds of our thought-formers ever since Freud and Spock concocted their idiotic theories half a century ago.

This corrosive idea of refusing to take responsibility for one’s actions now lies at the core of every single solicitor’s defence submission in a case involving violence.

“He was drunk” or “his parents didn’t understand him” or “since his father left he has been depressed.” How many times have you heard this sort of drivel churned out across the pages of the Worcester News?

Blame-talk is now the standard patter in any court hearing. All a solicitor has to do is change name where appropriate and then wait for the legal aid blank cheque.

Ding, ding – and that’s another chunk of wedge, thanks to the yob industry.

This is not just a mindset but a racket that is now firmly entrenched within Establishment circles.

As far as I’m concerned, society’s only hope lies in the repudiation of these discredited ideas and a return to the days when wrongdoers were held to account.

●DOES anyone pay the slightest bit of notice to anything these days? Take this little catalogue of petty anti-social behaviour, for instance.

The other day, I came across a group of youths angling in Diglis basins, despite the ‘no fishing’ sign. A bit later on, I saw a gang tanking it up on lager not far from the ‘no alcohol’ notice on the riverbank.

Then, to cap it all, I spotted two men with rifles in the Withy Beds.

I called out to them: “What are you carrying, air-rifles or paintball guns?” One shouted out: “Don’t worry, their just BB guns,” then alerted his concealed mate to “hold fire, walker on the path.”

Ball-bearing guns have enough power to kill someone. They fire shot about half the size of a musket ball and a head wound could easily be fatal.

If people want to use these potentially lethal weapons, there may well be a time and a place. It certainly isn’t near a public footpath on a Sunday lunchtime, that’s for sure.