A leading Government adviser who applauded binge-drinking, threatened to "deck" Downing Street officials and boasted of getting "hammered" is to head a new taskforce created to foster respect in the community.

The Home Secretary today announced that Louise Casey has been appointed as the Government’s Co-ordinator for Respect, a body created to tackle head-on the menace of Britain's emerging 'yob culture'.

Details of her appointment were revealed minutes before a tanned Tony Blair focused on the "respect agenda" in his first speech since returning from a three-week break in the Caribbean.

The Prime Minister said he was once more proposing to change the rules of the game, by extending the use of Asbos (anti-social behaviour orders) and parenting contracts to generate a "new level" of respect across society.

A central element is an attempt to forestall the scourge of anti-social behaviour by making such controls available against at-risk children before they go off the rails.

In a speech at a community centre in Watford, Mr Blair said: "People need to understand if their kids are out of control and they’re causing a nuisance to the local community, something is going to happen. They can’t just get away with that."

The Prime Minister accepted that the extension of parenting orders and classes could be interpreted as further confirmation of Labour's push toward a nanny state, and that a year ago such an announcement "would have seemed somewhat bizarre or dangerous".

He said, however: "We need to give people that support because if we do not give people that support, there could be an impact on the whole of the community. It is not something we can just say ‘it is up to you’ because unfortunately the way you do do it makes a difference to the lives of other people."

The Home Office ducked questions over its choice of figurehead for the Respect drive, preferring to reaffirm its commitment to ridding Britain's streets of yobs by intervening in problem families.

In a colourful after-dinner speech to chief constables in Stratford-upon-Avon in July, Ms Casey suggested that ministers might perform better if they "turn up in the morning pissed".

"Doing things sober is no way to get things done," she continued.

Reducing alcohol-fuelled violence is one of the Government's priorities - despite controversy over its decision to liberalise pub opening hours.

Ms Casey later apologised, agreeing that the comments - which earned her the nickname the 'uncivil civil servant' in the Daily Mail - were ill-judged. She was allowed to keep her job as director of the government’s anti-social behaviour unit.

A Home Office spokesman said Ms Casey’s new unit, with about 30 staff, would also try to encourage respect for public servants such as teachers, health workers and the police.

Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, said: "From bad behaviour in schools and poor parenting to binge drinking and noisy neighbours, disrespect for others can take many forms."

On the new parenting measures he said: "Where people want help we will provide it. Where they are unwilling or unable to accept that help, we are not afraid to intervene.

"Ensuring that parents are supported or challenged to accept their responsibility is the right response where a child is disruptive in school or in the neighbourhood.

"We have a responsibility to protect other children, young people and the wider community where the serious misbehaviour of a small number of children is making peoples’ lives a misery."

The Prime Minister said police would be given powers to shut down pubs and clubs where fights were a problem.

Fixed penalty notices would be used more widely and people creating a nuisance, as well as drug dealers, would be more speedily evicted, he said.

"The whole purpose of the anti-social behaviour legislation is to change the terms of trade if you like, change the rules of the game," he said.

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