[Acrylic-bob]

I have been through the "rebelling aginst my parents standards" thing. I thought at the time that dressing first in imitation of David Bowie and later as a Punk was an essential part of the expression of my individuality. It is something that we all feel the need to do at that age. It is an essential part of cultural development and most of us eventually grow out of it. I cringe now when I think of the things that I wore then and can only listen to a lot of the music from that era when I am certain that I am alone. So I am no stranger to the extreme dictates of fashion - when you have been out on a night in town dressed in a black bin bag, and still managed to return home with your street cred intact there is little that the youth of today choose to wear that can surprise or give offense. My point is that it does not really make any difference what a person chooses to wear or how ridiculous or outrageous they appear, so much is merely fashion and fashion as most of us are aware is ephemeral. It is what is what is beneath the surface of the uniform that is important.

I agree that the majority of young people have their heads and their hearts in the right place, and will grow up to be valuable members of the community who will one day, like me, look back on the excesses of their youth and cringe in knicker-wetting embarassment. However there is and always has been a minority that will not. This minority have, for one reason or another, no appreciation or understanding of the rules that bind society together, for whom cultural development ceases in their mid teens. The truly despiriting thing is to see that this minority is growing day by day.

This is encouraged by a youth obsessed media. Anyone who tells you that television does not influence children is talking out of their backsides and deserves to have their research grant taken away. All Ideas are pervasive, cultural ideas more so, there is no more effective way of promulgating ideas than to serve them up to the minds of the young, which are not yet fully formed. Why do you think that the government has only just gotten round to banning certain types of advertising aimed at children?