Far from attempting a Daily Express-style rant on my own blog, I would just like to point out that we have a big problem in this country if 11-year-old girls are wearing Pla
yboy-branded merchandise and it's readily available on the high-street. In essence it's a bit of fun, but sex and the consequences of it are real. Parents need to ensure they bring children up in an environment where they understand the implications of sleeping with somebody else, schools need to ensure the parents ensure this - and the government needs to ensure the schools ensure the parents ensure this. Better sex education might be the answer, but Jacqui Smith is right to suggest that a whole culture change is needed if we are going to get anywhere.The case of 13-year-old Alfie Patten becoming a father was splashed all across the papers last month as a demonstration of teenage pregnancy issues and the lack of understanding youngsters have about relationships, children, sex and marriage. But historically, young people often got married just after becoming a teenager - especially in Biblical times - and this was just the culturally correct way of doing things then. Perhaps we're on course to go back to this, but I hope not. I'm often concerned at how many people my age (20) get married, thinking that's too young, but surely marriage at 13/14 is just ridiculous. Therefore why bother getting children if you don't want to bring them up inside wedlock? It's thinking about your best interests - not theirs.
SIR ALAN WILL SEE YOU NOW...
forgetting Jack Dee, Patsy Palmer, Carol Vorderman and Fiona Phillips) and they will be competing in a battle to create a product for Comic Relief. It should make for superb television and provide a good curtain-raiser for the full new series of The Apprentice, which starts in just two weeks.Sir Alan Sugar has had phenomenal success with the series already, and it's certainly my favourite television programme as it makes business and finance entertaining in a way that only Dragon's Den has emulated. According to the show's website, contestants in the new series should make for interesting viewing. Someone's role model is Hugh Hefner, another candidate comes from 'a long line of aristocrats', there's a child chess prodigy and someone who left school to play football. Interesting...
SIT DOWN SHUT UP
ed by sides mostly confined to League Two during their recent history, showing perhaps that they have always had a terrace and have been unable to finance a redevelopment to an all-seater stadium like the Allianz Arena in Munich [right], with the exception being Colchester. The atmosphere at the last Southend United game I went to at Peterborough was so much better because of the terracing, as people had more space and could move around to easily stand with who they wanted to. I'm going to Hereford United this weekend, which is also terraced, and am expecting more of the same...So my plea to football clubs is that although all-seater stadiums might be seen as a safer idea, there are many fans who just love to stand up during games as that's their way of watching football. It creates a better atmosphere, is much more fun and is completely safe from my experiences. Fair enough, some fans will just want to sit down all game, and that might be because they aren't able to stand or would simply prefer not to, but football and entertainment just feels far more active standing up. I would call on more football clubs to recognise this, please!
