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Betrayal of a generation
Last updated at 16:22pm on 14.02.07
Family breakdown, drink, drugs, teenage sex and fear of violence have left British children the worst off in the world's 21 richest nations.
The damning verdict was delivered in a United Nations report.
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Even though Britain is the fourth wealthiest nation in the world, the child welfare agency Unicef found children were far better off and better cared-for in less prosperous countries.
The 20 above us included Hungary, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Greece and Poland. The Netherlands was ranked the best country for children to live in, with Ireland ninth.
The report put Britain above only three countries for educational standards and second last for numbers of single parents and stepfamilies. It was the country where fewest children found others of the same age 'kind and helpful'.
Rates of teenage births were the worst in the developed world. British children were most likely to be drunk from the age of 11 onwards, most likely to have had sex by 15 and highly likely to smoke cannabis. Their diet was also poor - they were third from bottom for eating fruit.
The findings are a scathing attack on Gordon Brown's claim to have lifted hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty and showed starkly how youngsters suffer when they are brought up by single parents or their families break up.
Shadow chancellor George Osborne said last night: 'This report tells the truth about Brown's Britain.
'After ten years of his welfare and education policies, our children have the lowest wellbeing in the developed world.
'The Chancellor has failed this generation of children and will fail the next if he's given a chance. We need a new approach.'
The Government-appointed Children's Commissioner for England, Sir Albert Aynsley-Green, said: 'We must acknowledge that these problems cannot be solved by policy and funding alone.
'There is a crisis at the heart of our society and we must not continue to ignore the impact of our attitudes towards children and young people and the effect this has on their well-being.'
Unicef found that deep poverty remains and alongside it the worst levels of drinking and under-age sex.
Britain was only just above the bottom of the table when ranked for child drug abuse, teenage pregnancy and levels of bullying and violence.
The report challenged Labour's guiding principle that all kinds of families are just as good and that children suffer mainly from poverty and 'bad parenting'.
The Government has stripped the last tax breaks from marriage while bringing in benefits like tax credits which help single parents rather than couples.
Yet Unicef linked single parent families and stepfamilies with poor education, poor health and poor quality jobs.
It said the lack of two birth parents, rather than poverty, was the biggest problem for children with single mothers or from broken families.
Sociologist Patricia Morgan, author of a series of studies of changing family structures and childhood, said: 'The Government has been ignoring evidence about the effect of family fragmentation on children for so long - will it believe it when it comes from the UN?'
'We have tested to destruction the idea that family structure does not matter. Government neglect of two-parent families is criminal.'
Unicef's 'Report Card: An Overview of Child Well-Being in Rich Countries' was billed as 'a comprehensive assessment of the lives and well-being of children'.
It concluded that 'economic poverty alone is an inadequate measure of children's overall well-being' and warned that across the developed world 'many of the corrosive social problems affecting the quality of life have their genesis in the changing ecology of childhood.'
Labour came to power pledging to promote 'education, education, education' and slash teen pregnancies and risky behaviour by the young. But Unicef paints a picture of failure on all fronts.
Ministers stayed silent on the agency's findings.
Children's Minister Beverley Hughes - who has taken the lead in promoting initiatives like the childcare-based Sure Start and an education curriculum for babies as young as three months -was not available, her spokesman said.
Only junior Work and Pensions Minister Jim Murphy was said to be preparing to appear on radio and TV broadcasts.
A spokesman for his department, which runs much of the benefit system, said: 'We recognise that Unicef does vital work in this area.
'But in many cases the data used is several years old and does not reflect more recent improvements in the UK, such as the continuing fall in the teenage pregnancy rate or in the proportion of children living in workless households.'
Latest Government teen pregnancy figures, however, show that falls in the rate are slight and its targets will not be achieved.
Robert Whelan of the Civitas think-tank said: 'I have seen the evidence piling up for 20 years that married families are better for children than single parents or stepfamilies. It has become impossible to ignore.
'The question is how long the Government can close its eyes to the reality.'
Reader views (20)
Here's a sample of the latest views published. You can click view all to read all views that readers have sent in.
Canada and the US didn't do so well on the survey either, is that Blair's fault as well? You can hardly blame the PM for societal shifts. It's not about money, it's about parents and their shifting priorities.
We don't watch a lot of TV and we eat food that we have actually cooked ourselves. It's not rocket science. Healthy food is cheaper than processed food. And yes, I do work outside the home. But when I'm home I spend time with my kids. I'm their mother. That's why I had them.
Why feminism (ie: equal pay for equal work and respect for women as people) is to blame for all of society's ills makes no sense. How can giving our daughters opportunity and respect be a negative thing? If little boys and girls are raised to respect each other, then ultimately we all benefit. Blaming the UN report and problems with society on women is ridiculous. Blaming Blair for widespread sub-par parenting is also ridiculous.
- Natalie, Calgary, Canada
Firstly, Tezza, you cannot blame feminism. Feminism looks for equality, not mad ideas. Political correctness, on the other hand, is partly to blame. We all roll our eyes at the ludicruous stories that hit the headlines day after day. It's time common sense came back to the fore.
Neither, necessarily, is lack of money to blame. My Dad came from a very poor family, but neither he nor his three siblings decended into crime or drugs and grew up into decent people.
I think the wholesale destruction of the traditional married family unit by this Government does have a lot to do with the result of this report. Crime has risen because the Government has let it with its pathetic weak stance against criminals. People are having to work harder and longer to pay the vastly increased tax burdens this Government has imposed upon us, which unfortunately leaves children with less time with their parents than is idea. If we had a Government with backbone and common sense we would not be languishing so far down this table.
- Shirley, Kent
Tellingly this article doesn't mention one of the major UNICEF findings that child poverty has doubled since 1979 when Thatcher took power. To their shame after 18 years of general Tory underinvestment Labour have not done enough in their 10 years to reverse this damage.
Couple the greed is good materialist mentality of Thatcherism in society, and the woolly, "everyone is just as capable as everyone else" mentality of some of the teaching profession and it is no wonder kids grow up confused, having been lulled into believing they can be an astronaut when they can't read and write or be a footballer when they weigh 20 stone. It must be a disappointment when they are left on the dole or flipping burgers when they leave school. The equality we sell our children is a lie.
Add to this divorce, alcoholism, drugs and it paints a pretty bleak picture of life for kids. Children are cooped up inside during the holidays because their parents believe all the tabloid scare stories of what could happen to them if the played outside and they are fed sweets and junk food so they become pasty, fat and depressed.
A lot of parents don't seem to want to take responsibility for their children either - they don't want to educate or entertain them and they won't accept responsibilty if their kids misbehave in the streets or at school. We should look at what other countries are doing right with their children and try and implement some of it here.
- Mickey, Southam UK
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