Unicef: British children facing bleaker future under coalition

[muriel_volestrangler]

In what amounts to a direct challenge to the government's austerity agenda and widespread tightening of access to benefits, Unicef ranks the UK 16th out of 29 developed countries for overall wellbeing – and warns that teenagers' prospects trail behind their counterparts in many European countries, including Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Portugal.

Continuing high rates of teenage pregnancy, relatively low levels of young people in education, employment or training and problems of alcohol abuse in young teens push the UK down the international league table.

Unicef said the situation facing young people in Britain is "expected to worsen" as a result of government policies, and it warns that "since 2010 the downgrading of youth policy and cuts to local government services are having a profound negative effect on young people".

Unicef says although the picture for British children may appear better than when the charity last compiled a league table – which put it at the bottom of a 21-country list in 2007 – their prospects are worsening once more as the cuts threaten to "sideline" a generation.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/apr/10/children-bleaker-future-coalition-unicef

http://www.unicef.org.uk/Latest/Publications/Report-Card-11-Child-well-being-in-rich-countries/

The full report: http://www.unicef.org.uk/Images/Campaigns/FINAL_RC11-ENG-LORES-fnl2.pdf

[non sociopath skin]

1. Hardly surprising. Of course UNICEF is a lefty oranisation full of furriners ....

... so we can safely disregard it.

The Skin

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. Not as disregarded as in the US, though

I looked for news stories about the general report - plenty in the UK, and Canada (who came a place below us in the general ranking, so they've got problems too), and even New Zealand, although they weren't ranked on everything. But not a sausage from the US, though they're well below the UK and Canada (and if Canada can notice it, it's not just a question of time zones). We'll see if it does get any traction in the US.