Rescuing
Democracy in the United Kingdom from our current Elected
Dictatorship
|
Spin,
not face-to-face confrontations with the voters, is the
Government's chosen method of communication. Ordinary people
are dangerous. Ordinary people might ask a question which
throws a politician 'off message'; the Cabinet member might
reveal himself or herself to be a human being like us, and
not a programmed android. Worse still, he or she might tell
the truth.
Ann
Leslie - Daily Mail, September 16, 2004
Blair
wants to leave his mark on history - looks more like a stain
to me.
Peter
Thorndyke, Diss, Norfolk - Daily Mail, May 23, 2005
|
Britain
has traditionally been one of the biggest net contributors
to the EU because we do not get as much money back from
Brussels in farm and regional subsidies as our rivals.
According
to Treasury figures, between 1995-2002, Britain's average
contribution taking the rebate into account, was £2.6billion,
or £43.55 per head of population.
The
French - the biggest recipient of farm subsidies - contributed
£1billion a year or £16.08 per head of their
population.
|
Great
teen pregnancy fiasco
After
seven years and £138 million spent ignoring the role of
parents in sex education, Minister admits: "We got it wrong."
Why can't we just teach the word NO?
Commentary
by Bel Mooney - Daily Mail, May 27, 2005
Who'd
have thought the chirpy and boastful Oklahoma number I'm Just
A Girl Who Can't Say No would turn out to be the anthem of a generation?
When I was a young journalist in the Seventies the right-on-thing
for some of my peers was to write explicit sex education manuals:
no holds-barred stuff aimed at taking the so-called sexual revolution
into the schools.
That
was the spirit of the age. And now we have reaped what we sowed
- a hyper-sexualised society where small girls are dressed like
mini-Lolitas and sex sells everything. As new figures show, this
country now boasts the highest teen pregnancy rate in western
Europe, with an increase between 2002 and 2003 which brings it
to a staggering 42,000 under-18 pregnancies a year.
Chastity,
the US solution
Teenage pregnancies have fallen dramatically
in the US in line with a growing abstinence movement.
The number of under-18s giving birth has dropped 30% in
the last ten years.
In 1995, 38% of girls between 15 and
18 were sexually active. By last year the figure had fallen
to 30%. During the same period the number of boys aged
19 who had had sexual intercourse dropped from 83% to
65%. The trend coincides with a massive push from Right-wing
conservatives and fundamental Christian groups to introduce
sex education into schools which focuses on abstinence
from sex and a pride, not shame, in chastity.
Rather than being given lessons in how
to take the Pill and how to use a condom, young girls
are being taught that 'viginity is cool'.
Liberal critics claim that the abstinence
movement is a return to the dark ages. Proponents simply
point to the figures. In the past five years, during which
the biggest drops have occurred, President Bush more than
doubled funding for programmes which teach that abstinence
from sex until marriage is the only sure way to avoid
out-of-wedlock pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases
and other health problems.
A study by the roman Catholic Church
in America concluded: "The most likely reason for
this trend lies not in elite influences but in grassroots
public opinion. Though the nation is closely divided on
many cultural issues, it is not divided over sexual abstinence
for teens.
In Britain the message does not appear
to have been heard. An American expert who spoke at a
recent sex education meeting here was jeered by government
officials when she suggested abstinence could reduce teenage
pregnancies.
|
When,
earlier this week, the Mail featured the sad spectacle of three
teenage mothers in one family, it was easy to feel frustrated
by their own mother, Julie Atkins, who allowed an 11-year-old
daughter to have sex under her roof, then had the gall to blame
schools for not giving enough sex education.
When
the Children and Families Minister Beverley Hughes admits the
Government has reached the limits of its ability to contain Britain's
shameful teen sex statistics, and needs the help of parents, she
is right. But what if parents are as hopeless as Julie Atkins?
We
know that when parents speak openly with their offspring about
this important issue they will be more likely to have their first
sexual experience later and more likely also to use contraception.
We also know that sex education in schools needs to move far beyond
the biological facts into the whole area of relationships.
Yet
this is where the problem lies. Government policies which emphasise
'safe' sex have failed. The teachers have the courage to be unfashionable
prescriptive and advise that NO should be the word? I think we
can guess the answer. To be non-judgmental is the modern mantra.
'Moral
panic' is a mocking phrase much bandied about by those who should
know better - yet what else should we feel when we see young lives
thrown away, girls pressured into sex, children giving birth to
children, whole cycles of deprivation endlessly repeated.
The
social consequences are not in doubt. So what might have the power
to halt this depressing downward spiral? Not mere facts, that's
for sure. The Reality TV generation knows how to 'do it'. They
know about condoms, even if you wouldn't think so.
But
what they don't know is how to develop the self esteem and sense
of personal responsibility which values love-making as something
important, and the conceiving of children something infinitely
precious. Who is telling them that?
Last
year, the Mail's Ann Leslie reported on the extraordinary moral
backlash among America's young. It comes from the very
power which drives so many kids into (often unwillingly) sex;
peer pressure. In a poor area of southeast Washington, Ann found
rather scary girl gang members who call themselves 'Best Friends'
and are tough militant virgins. They bolster each other to pour
scorn on male chat-up lines, and proclaim virginity 'cool'.
She
detailed the sexual abstinence programmes spreading all over the
States - the 'Silver Ring Thing' and 'True Love Waits' movements
among those which claim membership of more than 2.5 million teenagers.
Do we care so little for our own children that we can sit back
uncaring, having given them the freedom to ruin their lives? Are
we so afraid of preaching morality - in other words, right and
wrong - that we do nothing?
I'd
like to see a cool 'Chastity rocks' movement starting here in
Britain - with the lad and ladette magazines respecting instead
of cheapening their readers, and parents and teachers having the
courage to tell young girls to say NO. That way they might truly
value themselves for the very first time.
If you have suggestions
for additional subjects, or material to include in the pages linked
to the subjects listed, please contact
the webmaster.
