Category Archives: Sunday Times

Tuggy Tug declared: ‘I can’t wait to get out of this place because I won’t be coming back’. I was standing on a street corner last week with a young man called Tuggy Tug. His face displayed an emotion I had never before associated with this 21-year-old leader of a south London gang during theContinue reading “The big idea that may redeem Tuggy Tug”

Gang members, like those who rioted last week, say that here are only two things will stop another flare-up: jobs and discipline. Last Tuesday, at the height of the riots, I got a telephone call from Mash, an 18-year-old member of a Brixton gang whom I had befriended three years ago. Three of the gangContinue reading “Fixing Broken Britain”

As Learco Chindamo is about to be released claiming to be reformed, Harriet Sergeant finds jail is also working wonders on her hoodlum friend Tuggy Tug. Chindamo was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Philip Lawrence (Reuters) ‘Hari, I am in prison, call me in a hot minute.” I was standing in aContinue reading “Prison’s just what a young yob needs: structure and discipline”

Summer in the inner city is not complete without a riot. I should know. I started my very own. We were in a sports shop. Everyone I know is in Tuscany or Provence. I am in London enjoying an inner-city summer. And summer in the inner city is a very different affair. Instead of carefreeContinue reading “Harriet Sergeant: My edgy summer in the ’hood”

After a former gangster enthused him, a hoodie was ready to reform. Then the system crushed his hopes In a bleak room in a south London hostel, I recently found myself undressing an 18-year-old hoodie. Tuggy Tug, the leader of a south London gang, has been in foster care since the age of eight andContinue reading “The state just won’t let Tuggy go straight”

It has not been a great week for the state sector. On Friday, Basildon University hospital pleaded guilty to health and safety failings over the death of a severely disabled young man. His mother, Gill Flack, called for bosses to be “held accountable” and demanded “staff sackings”. She might as well have cried for theContinue reading “The state sector’s big evil: it does not sack”

Eight million adults are ‘economically inactive’ — which means that one in five people of working age do not have a job The latest unemployment figures are a shocker. Eight million adults are “economically inactive”. That means one in five people of working age does not have a job. A new and expanding group, poignantlyContinue reading “Schools are churning out the unemployable”

The distinguished social affairs writer has made unusual friends: two teenage hoodies from Brixton I first met Tuggy Tug a year ago. He was one of about a dozen 16-year-old boys gathered outside a chicken takeaway in Brixton, south London. He wore black trainers, a black tracksuit and a black cap beneath the hood. HeContinue reading “My cure for violent gangs: museums and a night at the theatre”

Talk is cheap – or, rather, recommendations are. Lord Laming has just issued 58 to transform the “Cinderella” social services that allowed Baby P to die so horrifically. The problem is that not one of these recommendations translates into extra funding. Ed Balls, the children’s secretary, has, according to Solace, the body that represents localContinue reading “The blunders forcing children at risk to compete for care”

The government has stars in its eyes – and it is proving confusing. It has introduced a new A* grade at A-level to help universities distinguish between top candidates. Then, last week, it instructed those same universities to ignore the new grade “for several years”. What has brought about this abrupt change? The government saysContinue reading “Sorry, kids, you’re all going to Smoke-and-Mirrors High”