LATENT violence of the sort epitomised by the hooded youths seen hanging around street corners the length and breadth of the country is hardly what you expect in a small sleepy town like Alresford.

So it was with some surprise that, having had a delightful evening at the town's best Indian restaurant, to contrast the polite attentiveness of the staff with that of a fellow diner.

Tall, wearing a pink rugby shirt with a figure 4 on it, this young man in his 20s was obviously frustrated at having to queue to use the gents.

"What you looking at?" he inquired in a manner indicating that he was not simply a seeker after knowledge.

"Nothing," came the reply although it's true that his outstanding jug ears did draw the attention, but I cannot imagine they were of tremendous interest to fellow loo queuers who had other more pressing issues on their minds.

"Better not be," opined our young thug, anxious to establish no-one was, in the modern argot of the gutter, dissing' him (for more sheltered readers I should perhaps explain that that is short for disrespecting' him, although of course, no such word exists as a verb in the English language). Pathetic.

This blatant aggression got me thinking. Is nowhere safe?

Where do such young people think they are when, in a restaurant of all places, they believe it is perfectly normal to behave in such an abhorrent manner?

The truth is we live in a world which, wherever you are, is increasingly unsafe, or at least, thanks to incidents such as the one outlined above, is perceived to be unsafe.

Living in deepest, darkest Hampshire, we are lucky. Others elsewhere in the country and indeed the world don't have anywhere near such luck.

This was thrown into sharp focus by a very welcome invitation to the Royal Albert Hall for the Peace One Day concert.

Over 10 years ago Jeremy Gilley, a Hampshire lad born and bred, after a successful early career as a child actor - he played Bugsy Malone in the eponymous film - had an idea.

We have St Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, etc. Why not have a day, just one day, dedicated to peace? Amazingly, a whole cast of global luminaries from the Dalai Lama to Kofi Annan, the United Nations declared that September 21 would be World Peace Day.

True there has yet to be a resounding silencing of guns and warfare on the day, but at least it's a focus and filling the Albert Hall with people who at least might claim to be as interested in peace as listening to the likes of Cat (Yusuf Islam) Stevens and Annie Lennox is no mean feat.

You'd think it would merit pretty high coverage in the bulletins of the day. It didn't.

The BBC led with the shock horror of the Blue Peter cat being incorrectly named. Is there any hope?