"Stand up to bullies and they will leave you alone" is the old maxim, and there are many cases where such tactics can prevail. So the new advice from Education Secretary David Blunkett which suggests that victims should confront their attacker verbally has a degree of sense to it.

It is also sensible to suggest that children who are being bullied should recruit older pupils as playground "buddies" to help to protect them against victimisation.

But such measures in isolation risk an escalation of violence and should not be seen as the whole answer. By far the most constructive step Mr Blunkett has taken is to change the guidelines as to how schools should deal with bullies, which might help to avoid the sort of problems reportedly endured over three years by a girl pupil at a Bradford school.

Under the old measures introduced in 1994 head teachers have been afraid to expel bullies even in the most extreme cases for fear that political correctness would see their decision overturned by governors and the education authority.

Now thanks to the threat of action under the recently-introduced Human Rights Act head teachers are being urged to expel because failure to do so would be in breach of the victim's rights. That is a much more effective deterrent and a far more positive method of dealing with severe cases.

But what now needs to happen is for a battle plan to be drawn up to deal with expelled bullies so the problem is not transferred to other schools or the bullies left to run wild on the streets, building up even greater problems for the future.