Today we have snow. Nothing spectacular, here in near Newcastle we have about 1cm, elsewhere about 8cm has fallen. Needless to say the UK is brought to a standstill, schools are closed, etc etc how embarassing.
We have more advice for parents from chief medical officer Liam Donaldson. Now he is bleating on about "middle class" parents attempts to promote responsible drinking in their offspring. Is this man insane?, does he ever leave his ivory tower?. What he needs to do is to take himself a ride on the Tyneside Metro (or probably the equivalent in Liverpool, Manchester etc etc), late in the evening of the average Saturday if he has a death wish, but late afternoon will do if he wishes to live long enough to draw his (inflation proof) pension. He will see that the problem does not lie with parents who try to do the right thing (even if they are occasionally wrong), but with the vast number who consider, that avidly following X-Factor and exercising a complete lack of control over their offspring, is the way to produce good citizens.
But no, the class war must go on, it has to be the fault of the "middle class" who ever they may be.
We are further told by various "experts", that the low cost of alcohol is the problem. Even the Guardian today publishes data (www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2009/dec/17/alcohol-children-liam-donaldson-drugs-cannabis-tobacco-data#data) which shows that countries (such as France), where alcohol is available more freely and more cheaply that here do not have the appallingly high levels of alcohol abuse by young people as we "enjoy" in the UK.
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