Antisocial Behaviour

I start by disagreeing with the hon. Member for Banbury (Tony Baldry), who is just leaving his place, but not on a serious note—I do not want to disturb him too much. I spent much of the first 19 years of my public-political life on Manchester city council in a horseshoe-shaped chamber and in some of the most acrimonious and difficult debates in which I have ever taken part. I have never been one of those people who believes that the shape of the Chamber changes the nature of the debate. On the serious matter of the report before us, I have read it, and I am in awe of the people who produced it. It is an excellent report and I regret only that I did not read it until this debate was announced. I wish that I had read all the information in it when it was published, because that information punctures a lot of the myths, straightforward lies and misunderstandings about how ASBOs have been operating and what their benefits are. It destroys many of the myths believed by a number of people about the disbenefits. We recognise the increasing problem of antisocial behaviour in many of our neighbourhoods. It is often associated with the inner city and poor areas, but I note from the hon. Members here today that it is not confined to those; almost every constituency in the country suffers similar antisocial behaviour problems.