Jane Martinson (If the BBC presenter story teaches us anything, it should be the pitfalls of rushing to judgment, 11 July) is right to point out that the Sun should not rush to judgment in the BBC presenter case as it has in the past pictured 16-year-old girls on page 3. However, the Sun is not alone in displaying a contradictory attitude towards children and young people. As a society, we profess to be child-centred, yet the UK has for the last 13 years voted for Conservative administrations that have systematically attacked and dismantled children’s services.
This can be seen by the treatment of children in care, the underfunding of children’s services, cuts to youth offending teams, poor teacher pay, crumbling school infrastructure, lack of access to mental health services, failure to tackle childhood obesity, muddled policy on school meals provision, open hostility to child migrants and, most importantly, the failure to at least provide our children with the legacy of a habitable planet.
Whipping ourselves into a self-righteous fury about the alleged activities of a TV presenter is no substitute for the necessary overhaul of our policies and attitudes towards our young people.
John Lovelock
Bristol