Who is really to blame for Barnets teen pregnancies?
I am not surprised that Barnet has had the largest rise in teenage pregnancies in the country, not while the UK leads Europe in teen pregnancy. What surprises me is the boneheaded comments attributed to Councillor Chris Harris, who apparently blamed this partly on the orthodox Jewish community. They would indeed be strange comments coming from a man who represents Golders Green on the council; even stranger to be the words of a Conservative Party member but, hey, this is no longer the party of Thatcher, its the party of Dave. In fact I would have placed the comments with the sort of morally degraded woolly thinking of some lefty councillor who has never been in the real world. Surprises all around. Some perspective; this figure of 42 percent represents a rise from 2.4 percent to 3.5 percent of Barnets 15-17 year olds falling pregnant. That is a small number and much lower than other councils in the country less than half the national average of 8 percent. It is still too many. I would
