ELECTRONIC tagging and curfews for young louts, we are told, are on John Major's agenda.

And there are many people who would like to see this plan off an agenda and put urgently into action instead - particularly those decent families whose lives are being ruined by the yobs running wild on some of East Lancashire housing estates.

This scheme, coupled with some of Shadow Home Secretary Jack Straw's proposals for anti-social elements to be tied to strict, penalty-carrying "contracts" governing their behaviour, has much merit.

For if parents will not or cannot control their children, then for the protection of the majority, the state must do so - using all practical means.

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