The Mosquito has its place despite the pain it causes

Feb 19 2008 Denise Robertson, Western Mail

I’VE never been a fan of the Mosquito, the device that emits a ringing sound so high-pitched that it can only be heard by teenage ears.

It is used by stores and some local councils to deter youths from congregating in public places to cause trouble. Railway companies have also used it to discourage the spraying of graffiti on trains and station walls. I feel its use merely shifts the nuisance elsewhere.

Now human rights groups say it infringes civil rights and creates a divide between young and old. “Buzz-Off”, a campaign to ban the device, has been launched by England’s Children’s Commissioner, Sir Al Aynsley-Green.

He said, “I have spoken to many children and young people from all over England who have been deeply affected by ultra-sonic teenage deterrents.”

He doesn’t seem to realise that the whole purpose of the device was to affect young people so deeply that they went on their way. He claims they are “indiscriminate and target all children and young people, including babies, regardless of whether they are behaving or misbehaving”.

He was supported by Shami Chakrabarti, director of human rights group Liberty, who said, “What type of society uses a low-level sonic weapon on its children? Imagine the outcry if a device was introduced that caused blanket discomfort to people of one race or gender, rather than to our kids. The Mosquito has no place in a country that values its children and seeks to instil them with dignity and respect.”

Reportedly Sir Al, who earns £130,000, lives in a million-pound house surrounded by high walls in leafy Wiltshire. Ms Chakrabarti, who I have a lot of room for most of the time, shuttles so rapidly between TV and radio studios that I doubt she breathes in much unfiltered air, sound-free or not.

That may be why they’re missing a bit of a point here. There’s another group of people whose rights we should be protecting, the law-abiding elderly and the parents of the babies the commissioner is so concerned about, who simply want a bit of peace in their own homes. They write to me in droves, begging me to help them find a solution to the yobs making their lives a misery night after night.

What kind of a society is it that ignores their torment until they are so driven to distraction they emerge from their homes to confront their oppressors, sometimes with tragic consequences. What about their “blanket discomfort”, Ms Chakrabarti?

Youth leaders are right to say The Mosquito fails to address the root problems of anti-social behaviour – and may even push teenagers to congregate in unsafe areas.

“Police, local authorities, and business should work collectively with young people and their communities to address the underlying causes of anti-social behaviour in areas that cause concern,” says the chief executive of the National Youth Agency. That’s jargon for the fact that young people need somewhere to hang out with their peers and I couldn’t agree more. Few areas have adequate facilities for young people and where they exist they usually cost money young people don’t have. But a campaign to remove a deterrent without sorting the underlying problem is so much hot air.

Sir Al accuses the police of preying on young people “to boost their crime statistics”. The householders who write to me accuse the police of not responding to their pleas and leaving them under siege in their own homes.

I think the commissioner, safe in his high-walled home and his stylish office overlooking the Thames, should bear in mind that while children may be his brief as Children’s Commissioner, as a human being and a citizen he should care about all levels of society. We mustn’t help one at the expense of the other.

Fresh Miss Marple OK
THERE was always only one Miss Marple for me and that was Joan Hickson, left. Pointy-nosed, genteel, shrewd, unshockable and with skirts down to her ankles, she lived and breathed the role. Geraldine McEwan was good but far too twinkly-eyed.

The idea, in earlier McEwan episodes, of suggesting she’d had a lover dead in the war, was silly beyond belief. Miss Marple is a virgin. That’s what makes her so clever, she hasn’t dissipated any of her energy in mooning after men. Now we’re going to have Julia McKenzie.

Will she do? Well, if she acts half as well as she sings we’re in for a treat. Her version of An Unexpected Song is my almost-favourite track. I wish her well. But please, can we have some new storylines. Christie aficionados like me know all the existing ones by heart. One more “Death at the Vicarage” and I’m out of there.