OF COURSE the Queen Mother always had a strong cohort of admirers, even if they did not, over the last 20 years or so of her life, amount to the legions once imagined by Palace and State.

To mark her death, they planned nine full days of solemn national mourning, wisely scaled back following the death of Diana.

Meanwhile, perhaps only the most ardent of the Queen Mother's fans will have considered her to be the most warm-hearted, charming, generous-natured, courageous, inspirational and above all "influential'' woman of the 20th Century. The tributes on her death, however, have made all this quite plain, and those of us who have been blind to the enormous force for good exerted throughout the world by the Queen Mother must hang our heads in shame.

To our sadness at the death of an old lady, who undoubtedly did the state some service, we must add belated gratitude for a life of service dedicated to others. It places the Queen Mother firmly alongside the likes of Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela in the pantheon of great selfless 20th Century figures, even if she always lived in luxury, was pampered from morn 'till night, and ran up an overdraft of around £4m.

A handshake here, a wave there, an invariable appearance at the Cenotaph and the Cheltenham races, an occasional mundane remark that marvellously became thrilling to its hearers... Yes, the Queen Mother has touched our national life deeply. Among outstanding British women of the 20th Century, she will rank higher than Marie Stopes, whose pioneering advocacy of birth control has benefited every woman in the developed world, and may yet benefit every woman on the planet. Perhaps we should have had those nine days of solemn mourning after all.

BUT now let us look back to the start of the present Queen's reign. Among subjects that will escape the "Then and Now" comparisons of the Golden Jubilee supplements is the treatment of young offenders.

Then, there was a structure, which ran from the conditional discharge, through fines, probation, and spells at a weekend "attendance centre", to custody in remand homes or, finally, a "Borstal".

Now - nothing. The notorious pattern of capture-and-release of young offenders has perhaps reached its nadir with an 11-year-old Cardiff boy who has stolen hundreds of cars since he was nine. On his most recent court appearance, the prosecuting solicitor said: "This 11-year-old appears before the court virtually every working day.'' A police officer remarked: "Every time we catch him he is set free.''

The boy had continued to offend despite being tagged and subjected to a curfew order. Meanwhile, at Gillingham, Kent, 13-year-old triplets who defied a ban on visiting the town centre, where they had imposed a reign of terror, again walked free from court.

Home Secretary David Blunkett now offers what he admits is a "long overdue'' crackdown on street crime. But so far as I can see, none of its measures will tackle the farcical release of persistent young offenders, who thus laugh at the law and all it stands for.

Published: 03/04/2002