Well, what a great week for news – especially for those still residing in the UK.

I say that with a large and distasteful slice of unseasoned irony rammed in my mouth.

We hear that about 200,000 British folk a year are packing their bags and waving goodbye to this green and, in 2007, not so pleasant land.

Many of these people are fed-up with the cost of living, the cost of housing, the danger of a terrorist attack, the weather, flooding and the appalling now seemingly out of control violent crime in this country.

Last December I was lambasted by some Maltese after my article in The Malta Independent for daring to suggest that if the Maltese judiciary didn’t come down really hard on unruly and violent youth the islands would turn into a cloned “nanny state”. Well this week (indeed this year) has proved what a nanny state culture can do to society.

With far too much nannying going on we are living a memorable year in Britain for kids with guns, kids in gangs, kids with knives terrorising the streets of Britain. And if you thought this was a class thing, you’d be very wrong dear reader. This deadly culture is rife across every social divide in good old Blighty.

We have seen endless accounts of our youth murdered in our streets and in our homes. This has become a festering growing nightmare. The only thing is we are living the dreadful dream.

Even as I scribble these words we are reading news reports of an 11-year-old lad shot dead from behind when he was on his way home from footie practice. He died in his mother’s arms the other evening.

I am not ashamed to say that I, a 53-year-old grown man, was reduced to tears as I saw the boy’s mother and father appeal for help to find the 13 – 15-year-old who shot and killed their “baby” in the back of the neck.

I am not exaggerating when I say that Britain is a nation in shock – not only with this appalling tragedy but also with the countless numbers of our youth who have died through such senseless violence this year.

So, going back to my allegedly “over-exaggerated” words in The Malta Independent – we are now living a more dangerous, nastier nightmare in the UK.

Gordon Brown is our new no-nonsense tough Labour Prime Minister. Within days of him taking over the helm from Tony “Tough on the Causes of Crime” Blair, he has experienced the spectre of terrorism at our airports, the return of foot and mouth to our farms and a year where the culture of fear has taken over our society.

My view is that “no-nonsense” Gordon is going to come down hard and tough on these kids who are causing so much fear in our towns and cities. If he and his government don’t then heaven knows what future we have.

So, time to pack off nanny and time to get tough – time to put society back under adult well-adjusted control.

I never thought I’d say this but the words “national service” are creeping more and more onto the lips of many in this frightened and shocked nation of ours.

Little wonder so many are on their way out seeking a safer and better life.

So, has “nanny” had her day or is there still scope to just pat these “little rascals” on the head and send them off to bed with no supper?

The former rather than the latter methinks.

Ian Waugh

Somewhere in Terrified Britain