Britain leads Europe in illiteracy, obesity, divorce, drug use, crime and STD's

Source: Exec Digital UK

Date :06/06/2007 16:09:55

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development last year claimed a quarter of the British population aged between 25 and 34 are "low skilled" in terms of educational attainment.

Recent statistics showed that fully one-half of state secondary schools are failing to provide pupils with a good standard of education, and 40 percent of 11-year-olds are leaving primary school without having reached an appropriate level in reading, writing and math.

"Consider the following statistics," writes Maclean's contributor Martin Newland, "which most will agree, point instead to a fractured society, to impending economic decay and the total collapse of the postwar values system."

UNICEF this year ranked Britain bottom in the league of industrialized nations in terms of the well-being of children. Britain also has the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in Europe, the highest proportion of single mothers, and one of the highest divorce rates. Britain ranks top, with France, in western Europe in terms of sexually transmitted disease. It has the highest obesity rate in Europe, with nearly a quarter of inhabitants classified as obese. Britain has one of the highest rates of alcohol abuse in Europe, with a quarter of Britons indulging in binge drinking every weekend. Britain also heads Europe in terms of drug abuse. Cocaine use is highest in the United Kingdom, and use among secondary school pupils has doubled in the last year. Along with Ireland and Holland, Britain has the highest crime rate in Europe. London has a higher violent crime rate than any other city in the European Union, higher than in Istanbul and New York City.

"Perhaps most worrying," adds Newland, "is the alienation of large sections of the country's young people. These are people detached from society, floating free of family, jobs, education and training."

Recent statistics showed, for instance, that at least one child aged five and over is expelled from school every week and many more excluded for offences ranging from fighting to sexual assault to drug dealing. Increasingly, but belatedly, politicians are beginning to identify the decline of marriage and the family as the major cause of this and other social dysfunctions including ill health, crime, rampant promiscuity and welfare dependency.