Todays gangsters are streets apart from the oldstyle gang lords of the Fifties and Sixties. The godfathers of old were seen by many as a stabilising influence. Their power inspired respect and they well and truly kept the underworld in check. The twentyfirst century gangs of Britain are far more shady.Their brutality has spread far and wide and they live and thrive in our midst on the streets and in suburbs where ordinary folk live. The creeping tentacles of crime have never stretched further.