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Leading article

Unto us a Child is Born

Wednesday, 12th December 2007

The Spectator on what parents owe their children

Such scenes from another age trigger gratitude that the lot of the child is no longer so precarious. Yet we should beware lest we cross the threshold that separates gratitude from smugness. In February, the publication of ‘An Overview of Child Well-being in rich countries’ by Unicef showed — shockingly — that, judged by a variety of indicators connected with health, happiness and welfare, Britain is the worst place in the developed world for children to live. Iain Duncan Smith’s heroic work on our ‘Broken Society’ has filled in the gaps, laying bare an appalling social landscape of deprivation, addiction, crime, failed relationships and (worst of all) hopelessness.

The welfare system continues to conspire against the traditional family, offering perverse incentives for couples with children to live apart. As Fraser Nelson reveals today, it is indigenous Britons, rather than newcomers, who are most affected. If migrants are removed from the calculation, this will be the first year since records began in which most children were born outside wedlock.

The survival of the infant Jesus depended upon the love and determination of Mary and Joseph. In ‘The House of Christmas’, Chesterton showed that he grasped the formidable power of this tiny social unit: ‘The crazy stable close at hand,/ With shaking timber and shifting sand,/ Grew a stronger thing to abide and stand/ Than the square stones of Rome.’ That strength is draining fast from our society.

The government’s response is the ten-year ‘Children’s Plan’ which has been launched by Ed Balls, the Children, Schools and Families Secretary. Mr Balls is a talented minister and is right to approach these questions in a spirit of urgency.

Yet, when such policies are announced, it is wise to step back and ask who is truly responsible for the welfare of children — and to remember the sage warning of Sir Keith Joseph that ‘the very first words that a British baby is apt to be taught to utter are that “the government should do something about it”.’ The state can never be father and mother to the young. The family should not be nationalised.

Our collective instinct now is also to blame children’s problems upon external factors: television, the internet and computer games. All three doubtless have the capacity to deaden the soul, but none is intrinsically wicked. It is the cultural context in which they flourish that counts. Children who are neglected by their parents tend to spend too many hours with their Gameboy or surfing the web aimlessly (rather than in search of knowledge).

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M Stewart

December 28th, 2007 6:17am

I am surprised there are no comments on such a wonderful editorial. It is not preachy but communicates a timely message at an appropriate time. I have emailed it to many people. Thank you.