They will reap what they sowed

More than a million and a half Britons have considered moving to escape from a pestilential scourge which makes us afraid to leave our own homes. It is known as - the younger generation. There is more to today’s trauma, reported by the Institute of Public Policy Research, than the age-old fear and envy of the strength, vitality and passion of young people.

Why, for example, would only a third of British adults intervene if they saw a gang of youths smashing up a bus shelter, compared with 52 per cent of Spaniards or 65 per cent of Germans? Our teenagers are no bigger or stronger than those on the Continent, so what makes us so scared of wading into such incidents?

The answer is three-fold. Firstly, respect for the elderly has been eroded in Britain by the breakdown of family life.

Secondly, police in Britain have withdrawn from the streets. As the beat bobbies have vanished, street thuggery has soared.

Thirdly, many parents and schools have failed utterly to instill any sense of social cohesion in their children. The all-pervading message of youth culture is the selfish, me-first hangover of the Swinging Sixties. Every 16-year-old in a street gang knows all about his rights but has no idea of social responsibility.

If today’s children are intimidating it is because they have been brought up that way. We are reaping the rewards of indulging children instead of educating them.

It is no surprise that the generation now living in fear of teenagers were 1950s Teddy Boys or 1960s hippies. What goes around, comes around.

And while every school has some fine-sounding “mission statement” about producing good citizens, the reality is very different.

Take a subject as basic as geography. A survey today shows that one in five children cannot find Britain on a world map and barely half can locate China.

For all the billions poured into Tony Blair’s vision of “education, education, education,” schools are not doing enough.

Education produces good citizens. Ignorance produces yobs. It is a simple equation and we ignore it at our peril.

BBC robs us all with this turkey

The BBC’s much-hyped Robin Hood has lost more than two million viewers in three weeks.

Is anyone surprised? We expected rip-roaring action in medieval England. We get post-modernist irony, in-jokes and pantomime characters.

Licence payers have footed the bill for this £8 million extravaganza. The makers and the stars may have done very nicely out of this series but as far as viewers are concerned, it’s a case of robbing the poor to pay the rich.