[Despite my bit of fun in the sidebar at the moment with this Gobi Desert thing and recent spurious photos of myself, I'm deadly serious about the issue below for which we will be held accountable. We must, must act on this.]
Coming back to Iain Dale's distressing report yet again:
... we can add Johnathan Pearce's piece at Samizdata [thanks Lord Somber]:
... in which Time's piece is mentioned:
... and the matter is brought home personally to fellow blogger Clive Davis, whose teenage son was assaulted by ASBOs:
... the lily-livered response by the authorities followed - unbelievable!
We abandoned the moral code we paid lip service to in the 60s, parents went all out for the "self-fulfilling" lifestyle, children were allowed to grow up in a moral vacuum and look at the 22 year olds today - nightmare scenario.
What the F? 14 year old girls having group sex at overnight parties and doing drugs is somehow progressive? Hey, there used to be a thing called fathers protecting their daughters' reputations. Running a good chance of being bashed on the street is onwards and upwards? There used to be such a thing as police jumping on these things. Give me a break.
And some have the nerve to say society's improved.
Tom Paine has commented and it needs to be included in the body of the post here:
Coming back to Iain Dale's distressing report yet again:
* An epidemic of violent crime, teen pregnancy, heavy drinking and drug abuse fuels fears that British youth is in crisis.
* 27% of UK 15 year olds have been drunk 20 or more times compared to 12% in Germany, 6% in Holland and 3% in France
* 44% of UK teenagers are frequently involved in fights compared to 28% in Germany.
* 35% of UK 15 year olds have used Cannabis in the last 12 months, compared to 27% in France, 22% in Holland and 18% in Germany.
* 40% of English fifteen year old girls have had sexual intercourse, compared to 29% in Sweden, 24% in Canada, 20% in Holland, 18% in France and 14% on Spain.
* 15% of English girls fail to use contraception.
* A 2007 UNICEF child welfare study placed Britain bottom of a league table of 21 industrialised countries.
* Between 2003 and 2006 violent crime committed by UK under 18s rose 37%
* Marriage rates in Britain are at a 146 year low.
* Class sizes in Britain are among the highest of 20 Western countries.
* British children start school earlier and take more exams than other European countries.
... we can add Johnathan Pearce's piece at Samizdata [thanks Lord Somber]:
It has been blamed on many things, with varying levels of plausibility: the lack of authority figures that can inspire and instill respect in youngsters, mostly boys; the breakdown of the family and the rising levels of single-parenthood, which in turn is encouraged by perverse incentives, such as the Welfare State.
Throw in a culture that celebrates, or at least does not condemn, yobbery and violence plus the decline of manual labour and lack of outlets for youngsters who are not academically gifted, and you have quite a toxic mix.
... in which Time's piece is mentioned:
None of those indicators are good, but it's the increase in nasty teenage crime that really has Britain spooked. Violent offenses by British under-18s rose 37% in the three years to 2006.
... and the matter is brought home personally to fellow blogger Clive Davis, whose teenage son was assaulted by ASBOs:
My son was attacked - without provocation - on Saturday night. (He told the kids who punched and kicked him that he had a pacemaker, but it didn't make any difference. He was knocked cold in the end, and he's still suffering from concussion.) Yet the officer handling the case didn't plan to interview the main witness - one of my son's friends - until this weekend.
... the lily-livered response by the authorities followed - unbelievable!
We abandoned the moral code we paid lip service to in the 60s, parents went all out for the "self-fulfilling" lifestyle, children were allowed to grow up in a moral vacuum and look at the 22 year olds today - nightmare scenario.
What the F? 14 year old girls having group sex at overnight parties and doing drugs is somehow progressive? Hey, there used to be a thing called fathers protecting their daughters' reputations. Running a good chance of being bashed on the street is onwards and upwards? There used to be such a thing as police jumping on these things. Give me a break.
And some have the nerve to say society's improved.
Tom Paine has commented and it needs to be included in the body of the post here:
The established middle classes refuse to believe the sombre truths evident to those more recently emerged from the working class. No, Hermione, you would NOT get pregnant in order to get a council house. Nor would you keep getting pregnant to maximise your benefits. It would not make sense for you to do so. But if you were unskilled, poorly-educated and your alternative was a part time job at the chip shop, you just might.
If you offer farmers subsidies to grow certain crops, are you surprised if they grow them? We have now subsidised baby-farmers at the margins of our society for three generations - and those margins are widening in consequence. Some of the mothers may - when confronted with the reality of their offspring - actually raise them lovingly. I am sure many do. Nature programmes us to take care of our genes and there are few drives stronger than parental love. But many mothers who conceived with such attitudes do NOT care for their children. That is a terrible fate for the child. Are we really surprised to find feral youths roaming our streets? In their place, mightn't you be angry and vengeful, Hermione?
Our grandparents and parents' generations were naive fools. They visited many ills on us; not least the debts of their unfunded healthcare system, pensions (especially the generous and entirely unfunded pensions of their public employees) and their myriad state benefits. Their worst legacies of all though are the ills fostered by their crypto-marxist ideology and hippy social attitudes - especially to education. Those selfish boomers are now gearing up to check smugly out of their heavily-subsidised existences, leaving us all their messes to deal with.
The established middle classes refuse to believe the sombre truths evident to those more recently emerged from the working class. No, Hermione, you would NOT get pregnant in order to get a council house. Nor would you keep getting pregnant to maximise your benefits. It would not make sense for you to do so. But if you were unskilled, poorly-educated and your alternative was a part time job at the chip shop, you just might.
ReplyDeleteIf you offer farmers subsidies to grow certain crops, are you surprised if they grow them? We have now subsidised baby-farmers at the margins of our society for three generations - and those margins are widening in consequence. Some of the mothers may - when confronted with the reality of their offspring - actually raise them lovingly. I am sure many do. Nature programmes us to take care of our genes and there are few drives stronger than parental love. But many mothers who conceived with such attitudes do NOT care for their children. That is a terrible fate for the child. Are we really surprised to find feral youths roaming our streets? In their place, mightn't you be angry and vengeful, Hermione?
Our grandparents and parents' generations were naieve fools. They visited many ills on us; not least the debts of their unfunded healthcare system, pensions (especially the generous and entirely unfunded pensions of their public employees) and their myriad state benefits. Their worst legacies of all though are the ills fostered by their crypto-marxist ideology and hippy social attitudes - especially to education. Those selfish boomers are now gearing up to check smugly out of their heavily-subsidised existences, leaving us all their messes to deal with.
This comment, Tom, is now part of the post.
ReplyDelete... the lily-livered response by the authorities followed - unbelievable!
ReplyDeleteAlas James, it is not. It is all too believable in fact.
TP's comment is worthy of inclusion but I don't get the could be America, Canada or Australia title. Are you saying that these horrific figures are the same in America, Canada and Australia? References?
ReplyDeleteSo much broken in society its hard to know where to start, its got so bad even the mainstream papers are starting to talk sense.
ReplyDeleteIt is like that in Australia. As I posted about the generous baby bonus being paid, come July 1st, $5000.00AUD is paid to those who have a newborn. It is not just mothers who are responsible for wayward children. What about a fathers responsibility? And, not all single mothers had their children as single mothers, some do come from broken families. Many mothers use their children as tools against fathers and wont allow them even simple access. Then there are those fathers who carry on through life and do not care to become involved with upbringing of their own. Australia has its fair share of parents single parents who do not care what their offspring are getting into, yet there are others whose attempts to do the right thing are being thwarted by the government with the so called 'kids have rights' issue. The government has effectively taken away parental rights, and as mentioned to me, the State has becomes the absentee father.
ReplyDelete"But many mothers who conceived with such attitudes do NOT care for their children. That is a terrible fate for the child."
NOT ALL fathers care for their children either. Don't blame it all on mothers !
There are a number of ways of looking at these figures - or at least the ones that I know about.
ReplyDeleteFor example the number of young people who have never drunk alcohol is rising, and the numbers who have had a drink in the last 7 days falling.
Similarly the numbers of young people who have taken illegal drugs is falling, 24% of 11 to 15 year olds in 2006 against 29% in 2001.
This isn't to say that there is anything to be complacent about, just that some of the trends aren't as uniformly bleak as your figures suggest.
As for the factors that influence these sorts of behaviours, there's actually quite a lot of very solid evidence about that.
The UNICEF report mentioned was a pile of junk, it cobbled together a wide bunch of out of date, inconsistent and incomplete pieces of research from various studies around the world and tried to pass it off as a serious exercise.
ReplyDeleteI have no doubt that these problems exist, but I'm wary of people who make random comparisons with other nations, anybody can selectively pick out comparisons to make, doesn't mean they are in any way serious and like for like comparisons.
You don't have to read reports to know what goes on in your own country or city/town. When it is blatantly obvious, many people speak with that knowledge. The reports dont mention half of it.
ReplyDeleteNunyaa - that is so.
ReplyDeleteI think those happened not only in Britain america canada or australia
ReplyDeleteLet's move then
. Observe the parents...
. Ask the teachers...
. Hold an opened mind dialog with kids
. Rules are okay, but firstly, giving good examples to younger ones is desperately needed...
"TP's comment is worthy of inclusion but I don't get the could be America, Canada or Australia title. Are you saying that these horrific figures are the same in America, Canada and Australia? References?"
ReplyDeleteThis could be America in ten years. When people bleat about how great certain social policies would be, I ask if they've looked to where they've already been implemented, i.e. UK, EU, etc. and what works/doesn't work?
Sad to say, but most Yanks are naïve about these current problems in UK.
As was inferred earlier by another commenter:
• If you subsidise something you get more of it.
• If you reward bad behavior, you get more of the same.
This may be a stretch, but after so much of this it wouldn't surprise me if the government intentionally does this; the State as Parent.
"But many mothers who conceived with such attitudes do NOT care for their children. That is a terrible fate for the child."
ReplyDeleteNOT ALL fathers care for their children either. Don't blame it all on mothers !
I couldn't agree more. Trouble is, a lot of men couldn't give a toss. Women are the ones who end up carrying the can (literally, sort of) and so they're the only ones there you can see: but far too often they are uncertain of their man's commitment or they are certain of the fact that he's given no commitment at all. The current problems are real, and have men take more responsibility would help solve them.
A little more digging and I see that the ONS are saying that the number of teenage conceptions are at the lowest rate for 20 years.
ReplyDeleteYou can download the data here.