No place for bullying, honestly.

Could it be right that we are that close to fully eliminating bullying from 'our' ‘Golden’ Isle that some might be forgiven for assuming it to have already been achieved? Is bullying really now so very rare, thanks to the ‘heartfelt commitments’ of a ‘successful government’? If so maybe bullying will be the future subject of countless documentary programmes upon the History Channel, celebrating the great strides that Britain has made in banishing this ‘unwelcome imposter’ from our shores. Maybe we will be able to collectively reminisce about its passing, promising never again to fall foul of the same basic errors.



Thanks to Alta Vista's photostream

Or maybe it’s all just so much tosh! Who’s to say?

Maybe young Francesca and her ‘over-reactive’ mother, Fiona, really were just victims of a tragic ‘misunderstanding’; maybe the local police force really had done all that could be reasonably expected of them; maybe the local youths, alluded to in news reports, really were just doing ‘kiddy type stuff’ before returning to their ‘loving homes’ where their ‘caring parents’ would want to know exactly where they had been and precisely what they’d been doing. Maybe!



Perfectly illustrated by Nightwatching's photostream

Maybe! Strangely (or not) my fingers quite literally hesitated over the keys before typing that word. Because anyone who lives outside of those more ‘respectable’ areas of town, or has ever found themselves passing through such a ‘less affluent’ area will quickly have gathered enough evidence to know that ‘maybe’ simply does not apply here.

No doubt, perhaps care of ‘The Daily Mail’, certain individuals will have endeavoured to deflect the blame from its rightful recipients- social workers are always an easy target, or perhaps the local schools- but, I suspect, when we are left alone with our consciences, where the dark angels of truth lurk in readiness, we all really ‘know’ more or less what has happened. Indeed, some of us might, even now be regular witness to similar incidents in or adjacent to our own streets and ‘communities’.



Sadly illustrated so well by Diesel Dan's photostream

When so many of us are subjected to, or witness to, the sort of ‘covert’ bullying that has been well and truly cemented into the very foundations of our society is it really any surprise that some of our social inadequates might be slightly confused over the ‘acceptable’ application of this ‘essential tool’ in their own lives and neighbourhoods?

Who amongst us, at the end of the day, when all is said and done, having had one of those days at the office, hasn’t felt like burning our own living flesh to a lifeless charred mess? As the police have already made clear, they probably overreacted.