News unfit for print

In the news today - Bored Teenagers. Shockingly, someone has figured out that teenagers are bored. Yup. Apparently, the BBC has uncovered a critical mass of bored teenagers. This is new - this is newsworthy. Teenagers are bored; they can't think of anything to do. What do they want to do? In a streetside interview with a representative: 'I dunno'. Whose responsibility is it, according to the BBC, to provide something constantly exciting for these poor souls? Yes - the government's. We must launch a government initiative into solving the boredom of teenagers. Because teenage ennui leads to ... you guessed it: crime.

Yesterday, of course, 'crime' was caused by something entirely different - wait - say it with me - 'the breakdown of the family'. A conservative think-tank has pitched the idea of 'marriage tax breaks' as part of a huge 200+ idea package. Married couples would receive about £20 per week - provided that one of them gave up employment to stay home with the kids (who then, would not grow up to be criminals). BTW, that means that childcare - including education, feeding, 'parenting' - is worth £20/week. That amount would not pay for childminding services for half a day. AND considering the fact that women's wages still lag behind men's, which employed parent will be the one to give up their salary? What brings this on, you say? Political-moral panic over rising divorce rates - broken homes - single-parent families - bored children. Where is it going? Crime.

I will become incoherent and raving if I think on this too long - marriage does not a family make. Marriage does not ensure that children are healthy, well-educated, raised with confidence in themselves and their place in the world. Marriage is a half-hour exchange of words - a legal fiction of 'binding contract'. It is nothing - it is less than nothing. It means nothing outside of two people, the decisions they make to share their lives with each other, and the people whom they choose to include in their lives. Not getting married - like not having children - is not an avoidance of responsibility: it is a choice every bit as valid and rational.

Here's the thing - marriage is not a political issue. The government has no place in the bedrooms of the nation. Teenage boredom is not a political issue either.

So according to the BBC, we've got a nation of people who can't think of anything to do and can't stick with something when they've got it. And this, - not the failing health care system, not the state of schools, education, or unemployment, not the environment, not the war that we are losing, not racism, homophobia, sexism and every other prejudice that lives and breathes on our streets - THIS is worth time and consideration.