ORIGINAL thought is the very least the a country should expect from the party plying for power in the next Government.

So it's disappointing to see Blackburn MP and Shadow Home Secretary Jack Straw leaping on to the Bill Clinton bandwagon in a bid to snatch a few soundbite votes.

Only last week, the US president announced proposals for the extension of a kids' curfew scheme said to work well in some American cities.

He claims rules requiring under 18s to be off the streets after a certain time are an ideal way of combating youth violence.

And only yesterday, by sheer coincidence, Mr Straw came up with the same idea and announced Labour plans to impose curfews on our children.

The idea may appear a good in theory. But the sheer disruption caused by implementation would surely outweigh any little advantages it would produce.

We would, in effect, be turning our highly qualified, already too-thin blue line, beat police into nothing more than glorified dog catchers. Picture the scene of a Keystone Cops-type chase through the winding streets of a town centre.

While at the same time, possibly only yards away, older villains take advantage of the shambles to get on with their own businesses of burglary and assault.

In short, we could even find teams of kids lined up by unscrupulous adults to throw a smoke screen over criminal activities.

And, at the end of the day, when police finally march the offending kids home at midnight, how likely are they to find a responsible adult there waiting to accept them back ?

This scheme is far too flawed to ever work. And even if it could be cobbled together, why should the decent, law-abiding majority of our kids have to pay the penalty for the crimes of the few?

Simply wiping young people off our streets is not the answer, and it never will be.

Education is the answer. On the part of both parents and children.

Responsibility lies with parents who should know where their young teenagers are and what they are doing.

Stiff penalties for the guardians of those youngsters actually caught committing crimes may serve to focus the attention of those who constantly duck their responsibilities.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.