Quote of the day

The Spectator's Fraser Nelson is not happy about the dog legislation

Brendan O'Neill was quite right in this week's magazine, where he describes how government seeks to use this scare for yet another power grab over the citizens. The aim, he says "is not only to bring dog-owners into that very big tent of People Continually Spied On By The Authorities, but to weed out the 'devil dogs that terrorise socially deprived areas' by controlling the kind of people who are allowed to own such dogs."

The unbroken society

The Economist this week is not convinced about the Tory arguments for a broken society.

In its leader it says that it has become fashionable to say that British society is in a mess and getting worse.

But the facts say otherwise

It would be idiotic to claim that Britain is perfect. The vomitous binge-drinking mainly by the young, the drug abuse and teenage pregnancy that are still higher than in most west European countries and the large proportion of single-parent families all tell a tale. But the story of broad decline is simply untrue Stepping back from the glare of the latest appalling tale, it is clear that by most measures things have been getting better for a good decade and a half. In suggesting that the rot runs right through society, the Tories fail to pinpoint the areas where genuine crises persist. The broken-Britain myth is worse than scaremongering—it glosses over those who need help most.

Balls hits back at Cameron's broken society claim

Children's secretary Ed Balls has responded to the latest attacks on broken Britain in a piece on Labour List today.

Refering to the Tory attacks following the Sun's revelation of the 13 year old father he says that

the idea that this tragic case means "Britain is broken" is absurd. As was David Cameron's shocking claim in a Sunday newspaper that the appalling way in which Karen Matthews locked-up and abused her daughter, Shannon, could well be repeated by the 5 million mothers who currently receive income-related benefits.

adding that

1 Iain Duncan-Smith's strategy simply ignores the facts. Over the last decade teenage pregnancy rates have fallen. So has child poverty. And thousands more young people are volunteering.

2.the Conservative Party consistently refuses to support our Children's Plan policies to tackle the causes of under-achievement, poverty or crime.

3.Tory policies would makes things worse.

Broken Britain?

The story that featured on the front of the Sun on Friday has once again set the debate running about British society.

The Sunday Times leader takes a look at the question and concludes that

Britain is doing low-life better than almost all other developed countries. A growing segment, which Charles Murray in a pioneering investigation for this newspaper called the underclass, is devoid of the values and morality of a civilised society which foolishly provides the financial incentives to behave badly. We saw it in the case of Karen Matthews, who drugged and imprisoned her daughter to extract money from the public and the media, and we see it again now.

William Rees Mogg joins the debate in the Mail on Sunday in his article We've got rid of marriage - but at a terrible cost

With Alasdair Palmer writing in the Teleraph that

modern Britain has created a culture of incentives for teenagers to get pregnant and have children

the flavour of the media's reaction can be easily gauged.But it is also worth reading Sarah Sands in the Independent who says that

Before we all start wailing about irresponsible teenage pregnancies and guest fathers, we might inspect the state of grown-up parental relationships. At least Alfie and Chantelle have the mitigation of youthful naivety when the relationship breaks up.

A sad reflection on life in Britain's cities

There is mich on the Rhys Jones case in this morning's papers and no doubt we are going to hear a lot about broken Britain

It is worth reading the opinion piece in the Independent this morning.

Like the murder of Baby P and the kidnap of Shannon Matthews, the killing of Rhys Jones has shone an unforgiving spotlight on parts of modern Britain. And what it reveals is not pretty.

adding that

Like the killing of the toddler, James Bulger, in the same part of the country in 1993, the death provoked national shock, as Rhys was named the youngest victim of gang violence in Britain. But the truth was that, unlike the Bulger killing, such a tragedy was long on the cards.