SOCIAL unrest and disorder is contagious - especially among the young. So the outbreak of juvenile malevolence on local council estates was entirely predictable.

And no doubt there will be plenty more where that came from during the long, hot summer promised by weather forecasters.

Tales of families being terrorised and individuals too scared to venture outside their front doors are becoming all too common as violence in our society soars to unprecedented levels.

When a 13-year-old girl is kicked to death by other girls of similar age, it really IS time to stop and ask: What the hell is going on?

The erosion of simple human values - tolerance, patience, respect, to name but three - has produced a society so steeped in anti-social behaviour that there seems no depth to which we cannot plummet.

That is not to say that every council estate in the land is a training ground for a new breed of urban guerillas. There are plenty of decent, law-abiding folk out there in the concrete jungle. You very rarely, if ever, read or hear about them.

The trouble is that unemployment, family break-ups and the seemingly ever-spreading drug influence have combined to produce gangs of young people with time on their hands, nothing to do and, worst of all, a grudge against a system which they believe (with good reason in many cases) to have failed them.

Unemployment among the working (or non-working) class on council estates is nothing new. The 'economically challenged' strata of society has been around since day one; it's only in the late 20th century that it has taken to burglary, shoplifting, mugging, drug dealing, arson, car theft, and street violence. In those happy yesteryears, we had jobless drunks who tried to find a solution to their problems through the bottom of a glass but one could live on an estate without fear of a brick or Molotov cocktail being slung through one's window.

The influence of TV, videos and films have all played their part, as indeed has the dereliction of parental duty in so many turbulent families. It's no wonder we have so many loose cannons out there.

Religious leaders have sought to calm the situation with appeals. Their intentions are honourable for these are honourable men. But they are, I fear, small voices crying in the wilderness which will not be heeded even if they are heard.

The tearaways don't fear - let alone respect the law, so they are hardly likely to pay attention to a churchman. They know they are highly unlikely to receive more than a statutory slapped wrist if they are prosecuted. And there are tales of miscreants actually laughing as they are driven off in a police vehicle and bragging about it all to their equally brainless pals on their return.

Tabloid references to these estates as carbon copies of The Bronx are, thankfully for now at any rate, hugely wide of the mark. We haven't as yet had a drive-by shooting - though we can't be all that far away from total anarchy.

The overstretched police resources will be pushed to cope. Vigilante is a word constantly being muttered. Dodge City looms, folks. Come in Wyatt Earp. This is your life!!!

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