YOB BRITAIN

A man is hit around the face with a glass in a Newcastle restaurant on Friday night while his wife is injured by the flying splinters; drunken hooligans out on Saturday afternoon in Manchester start shouting when asked to be quiet.

Sadly these are everyday, unremarkable occurrences in modern Britain.

Except the man glassed in the face was the chairman of Sunderland FC, a top flight English football club, and the drunken hooligans were shouting during a minute's silence in memory of recently deceased football star George Best, before Liverpool's match at Manchester City.

Even the City fans - bitter rivals of Best's old team Manchester United, were reportedly so appalled by the behaviour of this small minority of Liverpool 'fans', that they jeered them after the memorial gesture was over.

I wonder how those idiots would feel if someone started shouting during their granny's memorial service?

And the dimwit who attacked the club chairman - in all likelihood because he was unhappy with the team's poor start to the season - is probably the sort of person who can't distinguish between a soap actor's real personality and the part they play on television.

There are few things more tedious than expatriates pontificating on how their home country has gone to the dogs in recent years etc, but sometimes distance lends clarity, so here goes.....................

What sort of society have we created where people (and we are talking mainly, though not exclusively, about men) seem unable to control their childish and self-centred impulses?

Why is it that increasing numbers of people in Britain seem unable to think themselves into someone else's shoes, to imagine how things look from their viewpoint? In an autistic person, this is a recognised condition that can prevent them developing all the social skills needed to be a fully-functioning member of society. In a supposedly 'normal' adult, such behaviour is simply unforgivable.

If my team regularly loses, of course I'm going to be unhappy about it, but that doesn't mean I'm going to lash out at people around me. It means I shout louder for them next time, it might even mean I start going to church more, but it certainly doesn't mean I'm going to attack the 'daddy' figure - the club chairman - like a spoilt and petulant child.

And for those petulant, childish fans unable, either through intoxication or general stupidity, to stay quiet for a minute of their lives - I'm sure you'd be perversely thrilled to know I could even be bothered to write about you.

There is an argument that as with other attention-seeking behaviour exhibited by children and adolescents, the best approach is simply not to respond to it or acknowledge it.

And just in case Liverpudlians think I'm picking on them - this behaviour was also reportedly exhibited by a small number of Leeds United 'fans' during their Championship game against Millwall. It's not just about those individuals - lack of respect for others appears to be a national malaise.

Decent citizens are increasingly wary of challenging anti-social behaviour for fear of being attacked themselves. Recently in London a man was stabbed to death for daring to complain when a yob threw litter out of the upstairs window of a bus.

Even if people do challenge this bad behaviour, they worry that the powers of the state will not back them up.

A recent UK government ad campaign gave the public tips on how to avoid having their mobile 'phone stolen, with such gems as 'don't use it in a public place'.

As well as appearing to defeat the object of owning a mobile, what was breath taking was the weary acceptance by the authorities that this crime was going to happen anyway, so just don't give the bad guys an easy ride.

Why aren't we shouting from the rooftops that we want our public space back - that we're not going to surrender it to yobs, thieves and hooligans?

As the 18th century philosopher Edmund Burke put it: "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing".