Damage Limitation

Oak Tree Farm is a housing estate you would not want to come across accidentally. It should be avoided at the best of times, never mind when things have deteriorated. It is the season of goodwill, seven days before Christmas. The estate has exploded in an angry cloud of overturned vehicles; the secondary school sits slumped in a pile of smouldering ashes. You do not pick and choose the environment you are born into, unfortunately. Bored kids need occupying. Dads are absent or unknown; mums are too preoccupied with everyday living, pregnancy, alcohol and making ends meet on the dole, to care where their kids are. So when left to their own devices there is little choice for youths but to fail at life so miserably. They are lucky to be born with three career choices: prison, the local asylum, or death. All they need to do now is take their pick. No rush. Youths like this serve very little purpose. Some would argue they serve no purpose at all.