The Rotherham girl, pregnant at 13, admitting to sex with five men, has had the tabloids frothing and the middle classes yowling since her predicament was revealed last Friday. Labour MP for Rotherham Denis MacShane says there is too much pressure on kids to become adults too early. This is rubbish. The 19th century invented childhood, so that it could sentimentalise its own brutality. Throughout history, kids have always been little adults, expected to contribute to the family economy and usually to marry very young.
Teenage suicide is up, teenage crime is up and girls are getting pregnant younger.
Our social prescriptions for paradise have failed. The left blames poverty and lack of education. They are both wrong. Pitcairn has failed to regulate itself, so now authority is moving in. We are desperate for someone to do it for us.