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Seeing double with Shop a Yob

The Sun’s trailblazing Shop a Yob campaign to rid the streets of hooligans and miscreants is seeking help from a rather obvious source…

The national newspaper’s newsdesk has been in touch with that at the News Shopper, in London, which has been running its own Shop a Yob campaign for almost two years.

The News Shopper’s version of the campaign, which is backed by Home Secretary David Blunkett, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens, Ken Livingstone and all three Lewisham MPs, has resulted in hundreds of arrests and dozens of convictions.

It has also won the weekly series a Newsquest award and one from The Newspaper Society.

This week, The Sun finally gave in and rang for help.

News Shopper editor Andrew Parkes said: “We first published pictures of yobs and vandals in January 2002.

“This week we’re still publishing them and while such lowlife continue to commit such deplorable acts, we will continue to print pictures of their faces for all the world to see.

“If The Sun is serious about joining with us in our fight to identify and shame the scum of our society then I welcome them.

“In fact, The Sun’s newsdesk has just rung to ask if they can use two of our Shop A Yob pictures – so, who knows, perhaps we can work together.”

That’s in contrast to when the News Shopper rang The Sun to inquire about working together… when the person who answered the phone referred them to the PR dept and slammed the receiver down!

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