Hear hear that man. I spent over 20 years teaching the 16-19 year age group.

They could be trouble but 99.9% were great and I see some of them, with every social disadvantage in the world teaching at that same college having done education the long way round if you like.

I have seen so many people with very little advantage in life do so well it annoys me immensely when people come along and disparage them and the teaching profession. I have seen people in quite important jobs say to teachers "If it wasn't for you I wouldn't be here".

There is a "moral panic" about binge drinking. It happens elsewhere in Europe. Look up "botellon"in Google. I was in southern Spain when the Sevilla/Granada botellon's took place and it was clear the newspapers had exacerbated the problem. They all went barmy for a while and then calmed down once the newspapers had had their say and moved on to other things.

I go to a lot of festivals and I see the dozens of young musicians working so hard at their music and then having a great time with it and each other. In over 40 years of going to folk festivals I can count the bad incidnets on the fingers of one finger. What a shame people don't concentrate on them.