Warrior's memorial for war on thugs
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IT IS A crushing indictment of post-war society that a memorial to the man who led the war against the rule of Fascist thugs should now have to be used to try to defeat the little bullies and sadists who prey on innocent victims.
The founders of the Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowships can hardly have foreseen that in 1983 it would be desirable for the nine of the 99 successful applicants to go abroad to study methods of controlling violence and crime on public transport.
Among them is Dominic Rohan, a 50-year-old London Country Bus Service driver, who has had personal experience of football hooligans. He is to study security on New York, Chicago and San Francisco buses.
A train driver who is alarmed by vandalism and violence on the railways is going to Japan, which seems to have far greater success in controlling young people than Britain and some other countries. In saying this I do not ignore the dreadful riots in which Japanese students have been involved.
Sir Winston would not have been slow or soft in dealing with young barbarians. One can only hope that his fellowships will suggest effective solutions of the problem of violence, although they may be rather different from his.