Loose screws

Here we go again:

Ed Balls, the children’s secretary, said: “It’s not right – it looks so terrible. It has got to be sorted out. I want us to do everything we can as a society to make sure we keep teenage pregnancies down.”

However, David Laws, the Liberal Democrat spokesman for children said: “Because of their poor backgrounds we have a significant segment brought up in chaotic and unloving situations. Unsurprisingly, they often become chaotic and unloving themselves.”

Tony Kerridge, of the sexual health group Marie Stopes International, said sex education, or the lack of it, was to blame for situations such as that of Alfie and Chantelle. "Who can blame young kids when they get it wrong when sex education is so poor in this country?”

East Sussex Social Services say, "We shall be offering substantial support to these youngsters."

Back in the Dark Ages, when I was a youngster in what was (although we didn't know it) a deprived Inner City slum, a thorough sex education was freely available from the big boys whilst having a smoke behind the bike sheds. And contraception was rudimentary, but 100% successful, through the simple but frustratingly effective method of girls keeping their knees clamped firmly together during sex because their mothers would kill them if they didn't.

Looking at those involved in the latest of many consequences of modern, more enlightened, ways of empowering the feckless into taking responsibility for their lives - I can't help wondering whether, frankly, they are mentally up to it. And whether, until there's some evidence that they can handle their freedom to do as they like without making life worse for themselves and society as a whole, an element of restraint should be placed upon them.

So, without much hope of a likelihood of any of these things being done - here's the Goodnight Spilsby guide to helping Babyfather and his brood.

(a) Prosecute as many of the adults as possible for aiding and abetting under-age sex.

(b) Remove the latest baby from its parents and place it for adoption with one of the thousands of decent couples desperate for a child but unable to conceive.

(c) Make it clear that any payments received from newspapers for selling the story will be deducted from benefits.

One in twenty-five British girls between the ages of 15 and 17 is conceiving. Genital warts, chlamydia and gonorrhoea is rife among British teenagers. I would bet good money that the lower down the social scale you go, the higher these figures rise - until they are at their most commonplace in the underclass. It looks to me as if the evidence shows that these people aren't up to making responsible decisions about the conduct of their lives - certainly not while the comfort blanket of unlimited state benefits is available to shield them from the consequences of their actions.

Time we stopped listening to the liberals, then. When all is said and done, "morality" means nothing unless there's some sort of consequence - and the consequence here is damage to lives and society as a whole. Time to put our foot down. Some hope.