OUR Mediaeval forebears knew a thing or two about naming and shaming.

If you got up to a spot of mischief, you could find yourself with a placard around your neck informing all and sundry just what you'd been up to.

No one's advocating a return to the judicial values of the Middle Ages, of course, but there's an important lesson here for today's society.

And that is that exposing lawbreakers to the derision of their peers is often as effective a punishment as throwing them in jail.

It's a lesson that Worcester MP Mike Foster is keen to teach the city's yobs.

He is backing a scheme to distribute leaflets bearing the names and mugshots of those youths who have made residents' lives a misery and

who have subsequently had anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs) imposed on them.

The move comes after a senior judge ruled yesterday in London that such actions were perfectly legal.

Of course, the problem with naming and shaming is that many young thugs and vandals don't actually have any shame.

In fact, there will be some who positively relish the notoriety that stems from their picture being pushed through the letterboxes of all the neighbours.

But a potentially greater benefit is that law-abiding citizens will know who Worcester's biggest troublemakers are and will be able to identify them to the police if they see them getting up to no good.

Although there are no doubt some of us who'd like to take the Mediaeval motif a bit further by setting up stocks in and High Street and arming ourselves with rotten tomatoes...