The air is filled with the sound of stable doors slamming. Now that British teenagers are officially the worst behaved in Europe, policy-makers of all complexions are battling it out to dream up half-baked schemes to redeem them. But can anyone seriously imagine today’s disaffected youth thronging to join in the ‘‘fun activities’’ of a youth club in every town, as suggested by Ed Balls, the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, in a multi-million pound scheme to keep them out of trouble by providing them with more ‘‘facilities’’?

And as for the Institute for Public Policy Research’s suggestion of a legal extension of the school day, well that sounds suspiciously like internment. You’d ...