busker

Ever heard of Happy Slapping? Because it's catching on with the Brits

Man walks across Charing Cross bridge, minding his own business. Suddenly, a teenager in a hoodie steps in front of him blocking his path. Man prepares to be mugged, but no - it's weirder than that.

The 'mugger' is holding his mobile out in front of him to take a pic of the man. As he does so, another kid on a bike comes up from behind and thwacks the bloke across the back of the head with a rolled-up magazine.

This 'Norman' has just been "happy slapped".

Actually, it can be more brutal than that.

The ASBOs mentioned in the Guardian article are Britain's Anti-Social Behaviour Orders, introduced in April 1999 to combat the sort of aggro that disrupts the lives of honest upstanding folk like us.

For anyone interested, the Home Office even puts out statistics on such bad behaviour.

Do I see it catching on here? Not really. For starters, we have our own fuzz cruising around on bikes so a Slapper would need to be alert to any puissant-thighed cop powering after *him* - and with something a little harder in his mitt than a rolled copy of the Economist, by George.