WANNA BE IN MY GANG?

Police and local councils gained new powers yesterday to deal with gang-related violence and crime.  The new ‘gang injunctions’, or “gangbos”, which can be sought in the county courts against suspected  gang involvement, function in a similar way to ASBOs. The injunctions are tailored to individuals and can involve being banned from entering certain areas, owning certain animals (such as dangerous dogs), wearing gang ‘colours’, or even using the internet.

Sounds like good news and bad news.  The good news is that the illustrated cognicenti of places like Portsmouth, whilst they may see it as yet another badge of honour to be won, might now find themselves banned from the environs of Fratton Park (kraP nottarF), having to leave their bull terriers at home whilst Portsmouth Football Club can expect to see a dramatic slump in the sale of replica shirts.  

These prospects seem particularly apt on a day when official Home Office figures show details of anti-social crimes committed in individual areas of the country.

 Unsurprisingly, our friends from Portsmouth come top of the list for violence, with no less than 38 violent attacks carried out in just one street - Guildhall Walk -in December alone.  Surrey Street in Portsmouth only managed to come third in the country for overall crime, however,  behind streets in Preston and Swansea, so they`ll doubtless be working hard to improve on that performance from now on.

The bad news is that my crew and I seem not to feature at all and I suppose all the time we meet in M. Hulot`s French Patisserie for our pre-match coffee and croissants, dressed in our Blue Harbour designer gear and behaving in a manner befitting devotees of a family-friendly football club, the  much prized Gangbos will continue to elude us.

We may have to resort to extreme measures such as dropping crumbs on the floor and spilling coffee down our Blue Harbours but I think it will be a while before we can up our gangbo game enough for Southampton`s Town Quay to make the national list.