Ricky Hatton's manifesto to repair broken Britain

BOXING hero Ricky Hatton last night called for Britain to stop pulling punches in the fight against street yobs.

Backing The Sun’s campaign to mend Broken Britain, Ricky said the violence can only be stopped by courts, schools and parents getting tougher.

He told us: “Things are terrible on our streets and seem to be getting worse. People are dying left, right and centre.

“It seems you can’t go out for a drink and walk home without someone setting on you.

“I think you need to hit yobs harder. By that I mean stronger sentences for them.”

Ricky, who lives in nearby Hyde, recalled: “Last Sunday I watched the Manchester United and City derby, where the fans behaved impeccably. It was a wonderful day.

“Then a man was beaten up in the street and left badly injured. I found out next day. It put a dark cloud over everything. I feel desperately sorry for him and his family.”

Ricky went on: “We can’t ignore what’s happening any more. Every time you pick up the paper you read about youngsters killing someone, stabbing someone.

“I don’t think a slap on the wrist is enough. You’ve got to make an example of them in the courts.

“But something also has to be done across the board. Parents must be stronger, schools need discipline.

“And we need more police on the streets. If a group of kids is hanging around they should be moved on – but I’m not saying every kid on a street corner is a yob.”

Ricky believes much misbehaviour is caused by boredom due to a lack of anything to do.

He said: “When I was growing up I never saw trouble. But there seemed to be youth clubs everywhere then.”

Ricky, dubbed The Hitman, pledged to work with youngsters when he hangs up his gloves.

He said: “I’m going to become a trainer. Not just professionals, amateurs as well. Gyms are a place where these kids can channel their anger and find older role models.

“Delinquents can turn into gentlemen. There’s so many cases of that in boxing. I’d also like the gym to be a place where kids can go, like the youth clubs when I was a kid.

“I want to put something back into the community and stop the boredom that turns youngsters into yobs.”

i saw some feral kids this morning. it was really confusing. they were trashing these bikes that they were riding by jumping on the wheels, and then 'fixing' them by doing same... stolen bikes i guess, but it was pretty o_O

Well, under Hatton's Britain that'd get SORTED.

Under Caroline Flint's exciting new council housing policy they'll get WORKHOUSED.

I don't actually disagree with him. People go on about the kneejerk reactions of the right, but there seems to be a parallel kneejerk reaction to take the piss out of statements like Hatton's in a Pavlovian fashion, without asking the question "well, if I am honest, what has he said that I actually disagree with?"

Flint though is a different matter entirely.

Anyway, why aren't there any youth clubs anymore?

kids be owning tvs

Does it seem as though you can’t go out for a drink and walk home without someone setting on you, Mark?

Have you seen people dying left, right, and centre?

Feral youths burnt them down

xxpost

Kids owned TVs when I was a kid, but there were still youth clubs. try harder.

Ledge, no, but that's because I avoid those parts of town where it is most likely to happen. Actually it's not that likely to happen in Oxford at all, but it is in plenty of other places.

It's pretty unlikely to happen no matter where you live.

ooh it happens quite frequently at weekends around my town

I'm not saying everything is peaches and cream, but I'm always wary of anyone who says that things are going to hell in a handcart. Sorry, I seem to be talking like a football manager, Ron. Maybe things only "seem" to be getting worse 'cause of hysterical newspaper coverge.

In the UK yes. But I don't think many ppl would dispute that. They simply want to live in a world where it never happens at all. Which is a reasonable expectation which we should work towards, yes?

i think there will always be mean, violent people in the world : /

I don't think it is a reasonable expectation, I think it is a fucking fairy tale.

Ok ok, MORE likely to happen in certain places, but the idea that people are "dying left, right and centre" is hysterical bilge.

And as far Hatton never seeing any trouble in inner city Manchester when he were a lad, well......

To live in a world where 'all that' never happens at all would be to live in a world where nothing ever happens at all.

Man who beats people up for a living complains about violence on our streets, news at 10.

Haha I lolled mightily this morning when I saw this headline.

SORT IT

“I think you need to hit yobs harder. By that I mean stronger sentences for them.”

wow the world is pretty shit when you stop and think about it really, shocker.

xpost haha yeah was he spluttering and backtracking after just realising what he said then?

Anyone wants to Photoshop to read "Ricky Hatton's Manifesto To Repair Broken ILX" will get man points.

Fuck The Sun.

Recently, the wife of the man who was killed asking lads on the street corner to go away, called for the reintroduction of the death penalty.

And that's only natural, she's lost a loved one. If that happened to me, I'd be wanting death on the perpetrators.

But even if it was reintroduced, would three young lads be hanged in that particular case?

By the way if Hatton wants to stop getting set upon, maybe he should reconsider his whole shirtless, flag-as-a-cape look. It makes me want to set upon him myself.

“When I was growing up I never saw trouble. But there seemed to be youth clubs everywhere then.”

I think I've been hearing about the need for more youth clubs ever since I can remember. Stop telling as about APPEARANCES Ricky. I want hard STATISTICS.

But even if it was reintroduced, would three young lads be hanged in that particular case?

-- Mark G, Friday, February 15, 2008 12:05 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

depends on the judge innit.

'When I was growing up I never saw trouble'

This in itself is a little hard to digest.

I'm fairly sure this isn't JUST tabloid hysteria and that the statistics do report a rise in violent crime in Britain, but I can't actually be bothered to go and look it up.

I don't actually disagree with him. People go on about the kneejerk reactions of the right, but there seems to be a parallel kneejerk reaction to take the piss out of statements like Hatton's in a Pavlovian fashion, without asking the question "well, if I am honest, what has he said that I actually disagree with?"

As usual, it's down to addressing symptoms rather than causes.

I don't see Hatton making any remarks about corner shops who sell alcohol to under-18s and never get prosecuted because no one can be bothered to check up on them.

Or the unregulated free market culture which enables the super-rich to rub their wealth in the rest of our faces ("Fuck Me I'm Rich," "I'm worth a thousand journalists") and whose government runs like a scared mouse whenever the question of their being made to contribute more to the upkeep of the country in which they live, thus increasing resentment on the part of those unable to join in the party.

Or the subsequent inequality which encourages those at the wrong end to continue festering and destroying rather than to develop and find a future; that is if they can afford one after their gas and electricity have been cut off and they are bankrupted and jailed for council tax arrears, all to subsidise the lifestyle of rich corporate shareholders.

Or a self-serving, pseudo-Masonic political system whose inhabitants hardly set a behavioural example for their constituents.

i.e. change society.

quite.

I'm fairly sure this isn't JUST tabloid hysteria and that the statistics do report a rise in violent crime in Britain, but I can't actually be bothered to go and look it up.

-- Matt DC, Friday, February 15, 2008 12:10 PM (53 seconds ago) Bookmark Link

yes, this seems to be true -- though over a ten year period rather than over a longer span. and knife and gun crime are definitely way up -- i find reporting on this really strange: it's presumably drug-related(?), but it's always left as mindless random acts of violence...

Use of the word "feral" wholly pernicious in this context.

It's sort of part of the problem.

Bear in mind, kids, the papers (and Henry Cooper MBE) were saying exactly the same thing back in the seventies.

Violent crime - British Crime Survey data:
http://www.crimestatistics.org.uk/files/images/BCS_Violence_06.gif

'Violent crime' - Long-term national recorded crime trend:
http://www.crimestatistics.org.uk/files/images/TREND_TOTAL_VIOLENT_CRIME_06.gif

"The BCS shows violent crime has remained stable since last year but there have been substantial falls since the mid 1990s (a fall of 43% representing 1.8 million fewer crimes since 1995).

Since 1995 there have been large falls in both BCS domestic and ‘acquaintance’ violence but the reductions in stranger violence have not been as significant.

Recorded crime has shown a different pattern with the number of violent crimes recorded by the police showing substantial increases, due to changes in recording practices, increased reporting by the public and
increased police activity."

bugger

Violent crime - British Crime Survey data:
http://www.crimestatistics.org.uk/files/images/BCS_Violence_06.gif

'Violent crime' - Long-term national recorded crime trend:
http://www.crimestatistics.org.uk/files/images/TREND_TOTAL_VIOLENT_CRIME_06.gif

Bear in mind, kids, the papers (and Henry Cooper MBE) were saying exactly the same thing back in the seventies.

-- Dingbod Kesterson, Friday, February 15, 2008 12:19 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

yeah the whole "mugging" thing right? think stuart hall (not nthat stuart hall) did a book about the hysteria then, c. 1976.

I’d also like the gym to be a place where kids can go, like the youth clubs when I was a kid

At the moment the gym is hardly even somewhere where the adults can go. They are so expensive! Plenty of people I know who earn more than me have had to cancel their subs coz they simply can't afford it.

Well, looks like RHatton has got one point so far.

Wonder why Hatton has chosen to address feral youths, and not the obesity epidemic in the UK?

He means a boxing gym, not a "£60 a month and never use it but aren't the treadmills shiny!" gym.

xxpost

Wonder why Hatton has chosen to address feral youths, and not the obesity epidemic in the UK?

He knows the obesity problem can be dealt with by three days of dehydration before the weigh-in.

see, everything's peachy in most of the country:

http://i32.tinypic.com/59y7vt.jpg

(that's location of areas recording the highest rates of serious wounding)

things are looking bad for peterborough

^^ and delete all their ringtones

As Frank Maloney dances around in a Union Jack suit to the side.

Barry Lasagne's Crime Squad.

I think we need to hit yobs harder. By that I mean eradicate violence from society.

I think we need to hit yobs harder. By that I mean more youth clubs. Plus an occasional knife in the guts for petty thieves

Yeah, Arm the police! With knives!

I think we need to hit parents harder with a series of terrorizing campaigns. We'll start by bricking their windows and setting fire to their sheds. By that I mean educating them into understanding how best to bring up their children.

I think you need to hit yobs harder. By that I mean I’ve no real idea what needs to be done, but more pro-active rhetoric (that’s staight talking you nonce) would be a bloody good start.

An addendum to the above graphs:

"Since 1995 there have been large falls in both BCS domestic and ‘acquaintance’ violence but the reductions in stranger violence have not been as significant."

http://i32.tinypic.com/1625ypu.gif

in short: If we get beat up by neighbours, we don't know who they are anymore.

I haven't watched it since it moved to Channel Five.

I haven't watched it since Max Ramsay was the plumber!

(Your go)

RIP Big Max

meanwhile...

Added: Thursday, 14 February, 2008, 20:58 GMT 20:58 UK
the earth will die so YES!!!! i hate this planet and id love to leave.

james, london
Recommended by 3 people

yeah fuck this place, they do things properly on Io

If you did a choropleth shaded map for unemployment levels it's going to match the CDRP one Ledge posted above almost exactly, right?

Recommended by 3 people

What, to actually go do it?

There would seem to be some correlation (xp)

http://i27.tinypic.com/jt85s2.gif

Unemployment but no crime in the extremities though - Kent, IoW, Cornwall, Cumberland, Northumberland

things are looking good for peterborough

it's ok to have no job if you can go surfing.

Fuck the sun, yes.

Wham! meets the Beach Boys...

BROKEN BRITAIN
Can we fix it?
BROKEN BRITAIN
YES WE CAN!

Someone's bound to do it.

things are looking good for peterborough

-- DG, Friday, February 15, 2008 1:22 PM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

^^^Things that are false no matter what thread you post them on

hmm we'll see

Birmingham's looking pretty safe these days

a boxer leading the charge to reform society is classic no matter when or where it happens OK

This guy is recommending that we teach potential muggers how to box now? Is this going to followed by like ninja camp too?

If Hatton had had his way back in the day boxing would never have happened and he'd be out of work; this from the Times, 29 March 1797, re. Daniel Mendoza:

"The boxing match between Martin the Bath Butcher, and Mendoza the Jew, which has been the subject of every blackguard’s conversation for some days, was put a stop to on Tuesday, by the prudent and praise-worthy interference of the civil power. The parties met on Ealing Common, attended by a great concourse of people, (among whom was the Prince – whether accidental or otherwise, we know not – we may, however, reasonably suppose the former – and some other personages of note) when a Justice of the Peace, and a posse comitatus, assisted by a party of the Light Dragoons, made their appearance, and prevented the decision of the combat. In justice to the high personage, whose name we are sorry to mention on this occasion, he was the first to shew respect to the civil authority, by retiring with his party, as soon as the Magistrate made his appearance. The riot act was read, and the mob, in number perhaps ten thousand, dispersed quietly."

pay per view has killed the sport as a spectacle.

boxing - channelling one's aggression in a disciplined way in a place which is literally ring-fenced. So there is a certain misrepresentation going on with these people who are playing the "violent sportsman tackling violence in the world at large - WHAYHAY LOLFEST!!!!!!111" card isn't there?

comparing today's boxing matches with some unrefereed bare-knuckle fight in the 18th century is hardly helpful either.

Why don't we see more Light Dragoons on the streets these days? All back at the garrison, snowed under by paperwork I'll bet. It's bureaucracy gone mad.

The point being that it was Mendoza who instituted rules and regulations for boxing, including referees, elevated dais etc. a century ahead of Queensberry.

Those were the dais my friend, I'll get me coat I said...

http://www.arcade-history.com/images/game/2402_1.png

a boxer leading the charge to reform society is classic no matter when or where it happens OK

-- J0hn D., Friday, 15 February 2008 14:48 (34 minutes ago) Link

http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jah/92.3/images/davis_fig01b.jpg

http://www.thewe.cc/thewei/_/images11/uk/chris_ubank.jpe

lol what's Chris up to there?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/3192224.stm

This is not setting a good example to OUR MELANIE PHILLIPS CHILDREN

This always makes me laugh:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Minter#Life_After_Boxing

Dom are you trying to make me cry well I hope you're happy with yourself

Currently he resides in Surrey, England and tours all over the U.K. in autograph and lecture shows, alongside Jim Watt, another world boxing champion. He also sells cat flaps.

Dom are you trying to make me cry well I hope you're happy with yourself

-- J0hn D., Friday, 15 February 2008 15:33 (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

LBZC are just feral youths with A levels.

all my googling is for naught

interesting how the word 'feral' in this contemporary usage started out as a popbitch LOLism and now people are using it seriously

the word 'feral' in this contemporary usage started out as a popbitch LOLism

umm what

We used to use it regularly in health and safety meetings, i.e. how to get rid of feral cats.

umm what

as in 'feral children', it was one of their things they were suspiciously proud of like 'pram face', 'croydon facelift' etc