Stark Warning Society Demonises Its Children

Scottish society is at “a very dangerous tipping point”, because young people are being turned into hate figures by adults, according to a leading council official. The Rev Ewan Aitken, the leader of Edinburgh city council, said the nation’s youth was being “demonised” and that it was vital to address the misconception that most of them were up to no good.

Speaking in Edinburgh last night, he pointed to recent research which showed that two-thirds of British adults would be too scared to step in if they saw a group of teenagers vandalising a bus shelter.

By contrast, people in Germany, Spain and Italy would all be more likely to intervene.

Mr Aitken, who is also a former education spokesman for the local authority umbrella group COSLA, said: “I believe we are at a tipping point, a very dangerous tipping point, about how young people are perceived in society.

“We are not yet in crisis but we are rapidly perceiving that we are, and when ‘truth’ is built with perception, not fact, we are in real trouble.”

Mr Aitken’s comments coincide with a Scottish Executive consultation exercise which aims to find out what facilities young people want to keep them occupied and off the streets.

He said: “We used to say that the first flush of youth was the most exciting time of your life, but now more and more people are saying, ‘We need to keep young people indoors and hammer them with ASBOs’. We have created a situation where there is a fear of young people.”

Mr Aitken said the solution was to make sure young people were involved in making decisions that affected their lives.

He said he wanted Edinburgh to become “the most youth-friendly city in Europe” and that the city was already taking steps to get young people involved in the decision-making process.

A spokeswoman for the Executive said they also wanted to hear young people’s views as part of their consultation exercise.

She said: “If you speak to young people, they’ll often say there’s nothing for them to do.

“The consultation is not about imposing solutions, it’s about getting young people engaged and helping them to find fulfilling and interesting ways to spend their time.”