I don't know about you, I've had enough of all the talk about what's gone wrong with society.

The latest thing is knife crime, sparked by disaffected youth and the breakdown of family and community.

If the ranting stopped for a while and we take a look at what the government, law enforcement agencies and media have permitted and even rated over the last 20 or so years, the answer is plain to see.

The school day began and ended with prayer, assemblies included hymns and we said grace before our school dinners. There were morals shaped by Christianity that guided what went on in and around the schools. We studied the religions of the world - along with our equally young Muslim, Sikh, Hindu and Buddhist classmates without anyone having a problem with political correctness.

Then they threw out the morals guided by Christian faith that kept people in check outside of the schools too - i.e. it gradually became acceptable and then downright cool to sleep around and get wasted on alcohol, weird 'smarties' or cigarettes with no writing on the side.

You see what's happened when these morals are put to one side?

How many of our youngsters were born to parents that were not prepared for them? How many parents are raising up - or should that be 'dragging up? - children who haven't got a clue or even real interest in doing it properly?

For anything to work well, it needs rules. If you let your cute little kitten or puppy grow up without structure, that animal will grow up to make your life a misery. Now we have generations of young people, who through no fault of their own, are growing up without proper guidance, neither from parents who are largely allowed to what they like and a society that celebrates or turns a blind eye to behaviour that may give a temporary high but has serious consequences.

If Gordon Brown and the rest of the 'rent-a-quote' politicians want to really turn society around, why don't they use their supposed intellect and make real change? Oh, I know why - because there may not be enough votes in it.

Don't ask dumb questions if you don't really want to find the answers.

Give the respect back to Christian faith - don't ignore common sense because it comes from Christians. Think about it, we've tried it the secular way and look what has happened.

Do you agree?

Congratulations to Paul Ince on becoming the first Black British manager of a premiership team in taking over at Blackburn Rovers. I for one couldn't be happier now that the man dubbed 'The Guv'nor' on the field is now at the helm of a leading soccer club.

Our airwaves and newspapers have been awash with coverage about this - most welcoming his appointment, some even saying that Paul getting this job proves that there isn't any racism in football.

I suggest that the truth lies somewhat short of that. The dearth of Black managers in British football has to be down to the 'r-word.' Still Ince, who was the first Black player to captain the English national team, has to be commended for a number of reasons. Firstly, for having the guts to take a job at the lowest level of professional football in England, League Two Macclesfield Town. He saved them from what looked like certain relegation; next he leads MK Dons to promotion and cup glory.

I still believe that a Black person operating in most professional fields in Britain has to be somewhat better than his/ her white counterparts but Ince has showed that hard work, success and talent can still pay off.

Gwarn Guv'nor!

As yet another Father's Day draws to a close, I'd like to extend my thanks to those who've made this an extra special day for me.

My first thanks needs to go to my wife and son (the latter pictured above with yours truly), without whom I'd have no reason to greedily collect handclaps, cards, pats on the back and gifts all day today!

Also big respect goes out to those positive brothers from the Caricom Caribbean Restaurant in Warner Street, Birmingham (with a little help from Sting FM) for surprising all the fathers in the house with gifts and kind words. It's not often us Black fathers are even acknowledged, never mind celebrated. It was more than just the rice and peas and jerk chicken that brought joy to my heart this afternoon!

And government legislation is trying to minimise the role of fathers in their kids' lives too! I'm sure the beaming smiles of the all kids in Caricom, not to mention all the others around the country blessed enough to have loving fathers in their lives, have a different story to tell.

Goodnight!

It was a very warm afternoon way back in August 2002 and yours truly had just finished interviewing cricket legend Sir Viv Richards for BBC Midlands Today. As I prepared to do my piece-to-camera, I reckoned that Birmingham was on the brink of something huge.

The subject of the story was New Style Radio, which after years of effort by some seriously committed folks at the old Afro Caribbean Resource Centre in Dudley Road, Winson Green, had just won a broadcasting license to make it the city's first legal Black radio station.

With a potential audience of six million Midlands Today viewers, not to mention the hoards of readers of the numerous column inches the launch wracked up in local and national publications, it seemed as though the stage has been set. Surely now, with experienced presenters and journalists on board, New Style Radio could and would report on the Black community's news and accomplishments without fear of marginalisation or closure by the authorities.

Six years on, those early hopes have not been fulfilled, still don't think that there is a station that has the journalistic integrity and genuine interest in both reflecting and inspiring the Black community like New Style Radio could do.

Do you?

The station has encountered so much controversy in the intervening years. I've got too much class to go into what went wrong or to point the finger - but at least the station is still in existence.

Come on NSR, you know what needs to be done. Do it.

I received an email just now from a bloke I hardly know. Well, I don't think I know him. Anyway, he was going on about boycotting certain oil companies to encourage them to drive down their costs.

Valid point I thought, especially that the rising price at the pumps is a regular cry from my own internal whinger. Still, before my once revolutionary spirit even got a chance to begin stirring, along came that old sinking feeling - that this campaign would never work. Surely only folks with (now, now, be careful Veron!) let's say, time to spare that should be taken up with normal human interaction are interested in such things?

'Shame on you!' my internal whinger whispered and then shouted to me. 'The teenaged Veron would be ashamed of you!' To be truthful, the older version wasn't too proud of himself either.

Just when did the switch happen? Do you remember when folks were only too eager to picket/ blockade/ boycott at the slight mention of an injustice, sometimes well before they knew what the issues were? When did my 'get up and go' well, get up and leave?

Have we been pacified by the ease of our push-button world or just intimidated into inaction by the power of corporate Britain?

But just then, the fomer rebel in me began to rise, fuelled (no pun intended) by the glory days of protesting long and hard with the ambulance workers, anti-apartheid campaigners ... and those bunking off college pretending to have political issues with the poll tax.

'Yeah that bloke has a point,' the rebel shouted back, although with a shaky determination he hoped would last longer than the time it takes for him to log off.

Do you moan about things but bypass opportunities to do something about the issues that cause the moaning? Like I did, do you cringe when an emailer tries to fire you up with a cause?

Tell me, where have all the campaigns gone?

Anyway, I've got to go now. There's an email somewhere that I need to respond to.

Where do you stand on the debate over whether athletes should be involved in the Olympics considering the Chinese hosts' human rights record concerning Tibet?

Well they shouldn't go and the very fact that this is an ongoing debate highlights something about society too many of us complain about but still overlook.

For far too long folks have looked at other peoples' situations and decided that it is nothing to do with them. Well as far as I am concerned it has everything to do with every person who takes part in those Games later this year.

The very act of getting involved equates to acceptance of the situation. How can it not? Is the fact that Tibet isn't the most celebrated country in the world that its plight can be overlooked so easily?

Is it that China is the world's leading emerging financial power which offers a major market for business from the 'developed' world why the Games were even given to them in the first place?

If sport and business/ politics were truly to be kept separate as some of the apologists for China have been saying, the country wouldn't have been given the chance to host the Games in the first place.

Will you join me in chanting, 'Hell No They Shouldn't Go ...?'

How many times have you heard or seen a youngster that isn't doing well in education? One who doesn't want to work too hard or too long to succeed? Or, in line with current trends, is banking on starring in a reality show which will fast-track them to fame and fortune.

Well, these attitudes do not apply to all young people and I'm a great believer in giving credit where it is due.

A few months ago I was asked to give some help and advice to an aspiring media professional by her older relative - a request that has been made of me on many occassions. However this time, I was not approached half-heartedly by someone looking for the quickest way into the business with the least amount of effort or who froze at the thought of hard work, as has happened in say 70% of cases. Sephrah Anderson (pictured) has helped restore my floundering faith in our young people.

Sephrah spent several days working with me and showed an ambition and thirst for knowledge that I haven't seen for a long time! She brought with her a timely reminder that, despite the many of the negative stories we come across, there is hope for the future.

Now - enough of the warm sentimentality!

I, like many of you, didn't have anyone around who was capable of giving me much professional guidance. Nowadays, most of us either know someone in the legal profession, education, social work, IT, law enforcement, health care, media, etc or at least knows someone who knows someone who does. That means all of us can either do something to help steer the youth on their way or link them up with someone who can.

I for one am tired of the excuses made for the lack of progression and ambition amongst some of our youth. None of us can help all the youngsters coming through but we can each do something. Not being able to totally remove a problem is not an excuse for not doing anything about it.

To borrow from a line from Janet Jackson, what have you done for youth lately?

Anthony, thanks for your comments tagged onto the 'Briishness Scheme Really Bugs Me' debate.

My views on this subject, as they are on many things, are quite controversial.

I agree that there should be a representation of as many cultures, religions and creeds on any advisory panel, particularly one which deals with the very real and dangerous realities of gangs and guns.

We know that there are still forces out there who do not want to give 'other' people any kind of influence at all, but as a child of the late 70s/ 80s, I believe the days of wholesale community action for improvement are gone, if not over all together.

As a media professional of some years, I've seen too many people, including Black folks, sitting on committees, banging on about 'the issues' to anyone that comes near them and holding court at conferences discussing what needs to be done - often without genuine interest in seeing positive changes made.

Sometimes the real issue for them is to make themselves sufficiently visible and audible in time for the next round of funding.

I think that if Black folks or anyone else wants influence, this needs to start with, as the song says, the man (or woman) in the mirror, making sure they are positive, law-abiding person who is making a valid contribution to society. It should then move to caring for their families; making sure their siblings, children, nephews/ nieces are doing the right things too, and move on from there.

Too many of us, particularly as Black men, have moved away from their own sphere of influence in their own families to try to build the community. Don't get me wrong, that is good in itself, but what real value would I be to my own son if the only time he saw my fatherly nature was is in some committee meeting?

It might take a generation for the effects to be visible but this current climate didn't occur overnight either. Since 1981 I've personally seen the cycle of discontent, riots, insufficient governmental action repeated over and over again. If we want this done, we've got to do it ourselves.

Anthony, we need brothers like you to keep pushing for Black influence at decision-making levels but we also need to keep encouraging our own people to do all they can where they can whether or not these opportunities become available.

So the government want schoolchildren to swear ... their allegiance to the Queen as part of radical new shake-up to increase our sense of Britishness, the media reports.

You'll find plenty of swearing in schools across our nation, but I can't quite see this type taking off. Neither can I see this being tremendously popular with us grown folk, including some of the asylum seekers and refugees who've come to the UK without their manners and common decency.

Once again, the ruling classes are flouting their responsibilities to the nation; this time believing that we'll all feel better under a painted-on, pseudo-hippy ideology that we are all one big happy country.

May I suggest that before ex-Attorney General Lord Goldsmith, the man who reportedly put this 'thought' forward, goes any further, perhaps he could suggest an idea which will make Britain a place that folks genuinely want to pledge allegiance to?

Where crime is punished adequately, opportunities for improvement exist for anyone who wants to study and work toward them and consumers are not scammed because they have the audacity to use gas and electricity in their homes and fill their motor vehicles with fuel.

Lord Goldsmith, you get zero out of ten for originality.

I'm sure many of us would pledge allegiance to Bugs Bunny, if he could help make this country a fairer place.

Am I wrong?

That's all folks!

At last, we've got a TV channel to be proud of, BET- Black Entertainment Television! It's been going for ages in the States and now it's here. I was channel-hopping the other day, which I'm kind of prone to doing, when I reached Channel 209 on Sky. Fantastic!

There have been a number of attempts to launch Black-orientated channels here in Britain with varying degrees of success, but none have been able to handle the challenge of consistently broadcasting a good variety of programming.

I don't follow the music scene as avidly as I used to but there are plenty of debate-based shows on BET to float my boat and I'm told, there are movies, serials and general programming to come.

Check it out. What do you think?

Does it annoy you that this channel is American or just glad to have some competitive programming on air?