According to the figures published this week we do excel better than any other nation in the EU at one thing - pregnancies of girls under the age of 16. In fact, we extended our lead.

The Government admitted it did not know what else to do, it has dramatically increased sex education in all our schools, but to no avail. Could the problem be what we teach as so-called "sex education". Why is the majority of, so-called, "sex education" to do with the use of contraceptives, how to use the morning-after pill and where to obtain it from and advice on abortion and sometimes how to have one without your parents knowing about it. Whatever happened to family values, relationships, morals and ethics?

Where is the sex education that says the only 100 per cent guaranteed effective contraceptive is the word No, it's guaranteed to work every time. So I have to ask myself, am I getting cynical?

If we had a society which valued its children and young people, which was prepared to encourage them to appreciate themselves as they are, then the multinationals would lose an awful lot of profit.

If eight to 12-year-olds decided that they just wanted to be children and did not need their own range of designer clothes and their own range of cosmetics, it would probably be great for them, but disastrous for profits.

If we could persuade our young people that they are great as they are so they do not have to have tattoos or chunks of metal stuck in places all over their bodies, it would certainly be more healthy for our young people, but again disastrous for profits. We should be honest with our young people that part of their weight is puppy fat and, if it is not, exercise is more effective than diet plans, but could our multi-nationals afford to lose the billions spent on diet products by our young people? What about the biggest growing con of all - cosmetic surgery on young teenagers, just for some more profit?

Why can we not be honest and admit to our young people that less than six per cent of the female population in Britain can, in perfect condition, ever have the size eight model figure and the majority of females are size 16 or over. Size eight is not normal, size 14 is.

If we did though we may have a few less suicides amongst our young people, but a lot less sales of ladies magazines each week.

At the moment we have a growing society of dysfunctional parents trying to bring up dysfunctional children. We are forgetting how to say no and mean it.

Stand in any supermarket in Britain and watch three and four-year-olds have tantrums because parents say no and see how long it it before parents say yes.

At best we have five to ten years to start turning society around or we will have lost it because we will then have dysfunctional grandparents trying to help dysfunctional parents bring up dysfunctional children.

John Moore, Chawson, Droitwich Spa