DOES anyone outside the criminal element believe that Anti-Social Behaviour Orders are anything other than a minor slap on the wrist for the miscreants?

I don't, and that view is shared by just about everyone whose opinion I canvassed before committing these words to print. There are reports which suggest that, in some quarters, an ASBO is seen as a badge of achievement. Rather like a medal of honour, or dishonour, to be more accurate. I give up.

Just days ago this newspaper carried a report on its front page about a gang of nine teenagers who had systematically terrorised a neighbourhood of Bolton, putting some people in fear of their lives and persuading traders that relocation was a better option than operating in a climate of fear, generated by threats and intimidation.

In the latest incident, five of the gang were involved in a violent street confrontation with police, which resulted in ASBOs being given to those five and four others connected with them in the yob rule.

I don't know about you, but I honestly believe we have reached a point where any attempt to implement law and order is purely cosmetic. I'm sorry to have to write this, but I know there are police officers who believe the stealthy march of Political Correctness has emasculated them. The yobs are well aware of that, and use it to their advantage.

In some areas of the world, a similar confrontation with police wouldn't have brought ASBOs. It would have brought baton charges, water cannon, tear gas and rubber bullets.

In others, the batons, water, tear gas and rubber bullets wouldn't even have been considered. Real bullets, fired from automatic weapons, would have been used. I know this for a fact because when I worked on cruise liners, armed police or military personnel patrolled the streets in some places we visited.

Drug dealing, street violence, yob rule, graffiti, litter, and any form of anti-social behaviour didn't bring a written warning, it brought a beating, jail sentence, or, in extreme cases, the death sentence.

I know there are people out there who will think: Here he goes again. Vlad the Impaler. Dousing us yet again with extreme right wing views. Well, yes, I admit to being a member of the flog em, hang em, brigade, not necessarily in the literal sense, but certainly in the belief that only the discipline, respect, and law enforcement which existed in my teens will restore the UK to something like a civilised society.

ASBOs won't do it, and while we can't blame Tony Blair for everything, I wish he and the rest of the politicians of all colours could be replaced by a military junta. We would see some law and order then.

Failing that, how about substituting two-years' National Service instead of ASBOs for the yobs? They could be shipped off to Iraq or Afghanistan at the end of their training, a suggestion I have made before in this space. There, they would get all the violence they seek. And the rest of us could get on with our lives in peace.