on the right track when he suggests curfews for "children'' under the age of 18. Quite how that would mesh with the fact that Government says people under 18 years can attend licensed discos if they like but cannot be served alcohol we could not, of course, be sure.

Anyone who thinks that Mr. Butler has come up with some kind of far-fetched idea to be viewed as a bit of a joke in 1997 can think again. Large numbers of cities, both large and small, in the United States now have curfews, even such supposedly wild cities as New Orleans. In fact the growing number of curfew cities and moves to create further curfews in the US have had a good deal of publicity recently.

Indeed, the suggestion has been made before in Bermuda.

The basic point is that curfews make parents responsible for their offspring during the night rather than consigning them to the dangers of the streets. It is almost inevitable that young people who are allowed to roam today's streets will either find some kind of trouble for themselves to get into or will be encouraged to get up to no good by peer pressure or by others, probably older people, already on the streets.

Mr. Butler has been quoted as saying: "Either we find some ways of making parents more responsible for their children or we will have to use the heavy hand for all.'' He went further than we would dare go and suggested that this could include stopping parents whose children get in trouble from travelling.

"At the end of the day parents are responsible for our children.'' We do not think the idea of curfews should be viewed as in any way oppressive since its concept is to protect our young people from their own folly and from some strong forces for evil. One problem is that some of them are on the streets because the parents are not at home and some are there because they are, in a very real way, their own parents. If that is the case, then who do you hold responsible? Mr. Butler says people today lack the hunger of the past for upward mobility and suggests that may be because people who have worked hard are not going anywhere. Yet the evidence seems to show that while there is not enough, there is in fact more upward mobility in Bermuda than ever before and far more and a far greater variety of satisfying positions to be hungry for. Not everyone hungers for position or success or power. It seems to us that fewer people want to be politicians and quite right too.

Constantly telling Bermudians that they are badly done by is not reality, but a political ploy which seems to us to result in exactly the situation Mr.

Butler seeks to avoid, destroying "the national soul''.

As Mr. Butler has been quoted as saying: "We need some solid leadership.'' He has also been quoted as saying that "we also need some honesty''.

We may well need a curfew but we need it for the reason that parents are not doing their job and we want to force them to accept responsibilities.