Not all bad?

A welcome counter-blast of optimism from Mary Riddell at The Observer although, as she points out, the good behaviour of supporters at a single football match and the success of some feel-good plays may be little more than straws in the wind. Clever analysis of Shakespeare's Henry IV:

"In Blair's Britain, the dissolute Prince Hal would either be sent to Sandhurst or Feltham Young Offenders' Institution, having first been issued an Asbo for setting on a rival gang while disguised in a buckram hoodie. The whole of Eastcheap would be designated an alcohol disorder zone, the binge-drinking of sack would be outlawed, and Falstaff would be starved of calorific capons until conforming to the government's body mass index target. What actually happens is that the prince heeds his father's advice and his own conscience and becomes the Steven Gerrard of Shrewsbury field.
The odd thing is that politicians could take more credit than they do for public optimism and rejuvenated cities. Instead, a respect-crazed administration has been founded on a feelbad strategy in which young people are demonised, violence exaggerated, prisons filled beyond
bursting point and teenagers constrained by mad curfews, all in the cause of slaking government paranoia.
It may be rash to judge a national climate on some upbeat theatre and a few thousand football fans high on luck, alcohol and miracles. It is not, however, half as daft as shaping Armageddon from falling crime figures and a misconceived war on children."