Meanwhile at a library near you.....

One of the library clients kicked off the other day: he didn't get instant attention from the staff, who told him there was a queue and he'd have to wait, so he started swearing and shouting: 'f*ck*n *rs*h*l*s - aye, youz cin complain about us but we canny say a wurd aboot youz.'

That's not how it looked to the staff, both women, pretty wee and pretty scared. The other visitors to the library were equally alarmed. The staff phoned the police but, of course, the wee coward dived away as soon as he heard the polis were on their way.

So what do the library staff do now? They write an 'incident report' for head office. And that's that. The gutless wee b****** can swan back in any time he likes safe in the knowledge that nobody will even try to keep him out.

I've been on the receiving end of this kind of treatment myself in the past: teenagers who won't be told, parents whose answer to everything is a shouting match. I only once found it scary but the frustration of dealing with situations like this is terrible. You don't go to your work to deal with this - unless you're a council employee, of course. And don't imagine your employers will back you up: they are at the other end of the city, with a security door and a keypad between them and the nasty side of life.