'We are degenerate'.........so they tell us.

Britain is degenerate and depraved. The crime rate is appalling. We are a nation of alcoholics and drug-abusers. In particular, there is an epidemic of binge-drinking amongst the younger generations. We gamble to excess. We have the sexual morals of the farmyard.

 

At least this is what the puritans, social engineers, and general killjoys would have us believe.

 

None of it is true.

 

Recorded crime has been falling for 20 years. It has halved since it peaked in 1995. Serious offences such as murder, crimes of violence, and burglary are down significantly.

 

David Cameron has an addle-pated notion that excessive drinking must be curbed by  jacking up the prices. Other worthies pontificate about debauched all-night drinking with drunks littering the streets as in the 18^th Century.

 

The facts tell a very different story.

 

Alcohol consumption has been falling consistently for the past 15 years. Total consumption is 16% less than it was only 8 years ago. The average annual consumption per head is less than 8 litres, the lowest for many years.

 

As for booze-raddled youth, a recent survey reveals that less than 50% of the 16 – 24 age-group had a drink in the previous week as against 70% ten years ago. The number of children between 11 and 15 has fallen by nearly a third in the past 5 years.

 

Overall, convictions for drunken behavior of all kinds have halved in this century.

 

Now drugs-abuse.

 

Its rise is a threat to the very fabric of society, according to the wowsers.

 

And yet drug use is now at its lowest rate in nearly 20 years. Every kind of drug is declining in popularity, especially heroin and crack. Despite the commonly-held myth that just about everybody thinks it cool to smoke a spliff, even cannabis consumption has fallen dramatically in recent years despite the ‘personal use’ blind eye turned by the authorities these days.

 

Gambling is also on the decline, despite the growth of on-line betting. Total takings in the gambling sector have been falling year-on-year. Racing is in dire straits financially. Bingo halls are closing by the week. In the 1960s there were 16,000 betting shops; now there are just over 9,000. The gambling urge seems to have been largely subsumed into the National Lottery.

 

As for sex, we may be entering a new era of puritanism. Teen-age pregnancies are at their lowest level for more than 40 years despite the incentives for ‘benefit mums’. And hookers are having to reduce their prices drastically. Even Hollywood is having to clean up its act as audiences tire of sex scenes.

 

So what are the reasons for this ‘new morality’?

 

My take is that at last we are seeing an overdue backlash against the extremes of the Swinging Sixties, that most promiscuous and squalid of decades. Drug use, drunkenness, gambling debts also have severe consequences on getting a mortgage, credit, car insurance – and a job. Hippies are no longer seen as ‘cool’ but as losers, and drink-driving has become socially unacceptable as well as criminal.

 

Might the time have now arrived for politicians and do-gooders of every stripe to get off our backs and allow us whatever legitimate enjoyment there is still to be had?