Editor-At-Large: Let's give our so-called 'feral youth' a break

The cover story in last week's Time magazine condemns young Britons by concluding that – compared with their European counterparts – our teenagers are the biggest drinkers, the most sexually promiscuous, the worst educated, and more likely to commit violent crimes. Reading the article by Catherine Mayer, you'll wonder how any adult in central London dares to leave home after dark. It paints a gloomy picture of feral youth terrifying whole neighbourhoods and postcode gangs who have little or no communication with adults. It reads a bit like that colourful 1970s movie The Warriors, in which tribes of exotically garbed gangs converge on Central Park in New York for the ultimate showdown.

The reality is so very different – but a large part of the media is determined to demonise anyone under 21. Every single day we get "bad news" stories about youth. Last week, we were told that white working-class kids were the lowest achievers at secondary school, and that a government agency was considering telling schools to lock pupils inside the premises at lunchtime to prevent them from eating devil food – ie stuff from the takeaways and chippies that surround our temples of learning. There was the news that three more teenagers had been stabbed to death, making the total of knife-related deaths 11 so far this year.

And the Children's Secretary Ed Balls announced that he plans to give teachers increased powers to search students for knives and guns. That's on top of the metal detectors being installed in some schools. I'm surprised Balls stopped there – why not just forcibly take the DNA of every single teenager in the country when they start secondary education and have done with it? Why not replace school photos with mugshots that can be emailed straight over to the local police?

I am not going to pretend that some young people don't drink too much: a survey of 15- and 16- year-olds in the North-west found that 84 per cent drank alcohol regularly and 20 per cent had been involved in violence afterwards. These teenagers drank on average 177 pints of beer or 44 bottles of wine a year. But it was a cheap way of having fun, and cost far less than hiring a football pitch to kick a ball about.

And, there's no denying that in certain parts of Britain, too many young women regard getting pregnant before they've even sat their GCSEs as the norm, a way of getting their own home and a little bundle to cuddle. With the number of people getting married at an all-time low, and almost half of all marriages ending in divorce, the parents of today's teenagers aren't very good role models when it comes to promoting stable relationships.

It would be perfectly possible to go around Britain and construct another version of our young. For every mindless yob with a nihilistic take on life, you can find another teenager who is passionate about causes such as Make Poverty History. Young people haven't stopped caring about those less fortunate than themselves – in fact, they are just as idealistic as they always were. According to Time magazine, we Brits don't like children much, and have always had a bit of a problem listening to and finding time for them, hence a whole generation that has lost its way.

This is so bloody facile I want to weep. Luckily, young people do have some great role models – Konnie Huq, who stopped presenting Blue Peter in January after 10 years, is considering refusing to take part in the Olympic torch relay through London in protest against the way the Chinese government has dealt with protesters in Tibet. Another great role model is R&B singer Estelle, whose single is No 1 and whose new album has had rave reviews. Leona Lewis, who is just 22, has taken America by storm, topping the US charts and captivating Oprah Winfrey. On 13 April, the finals of Live and Unsigned take place in London and, out of 10,000 entrants, 22-year-old Joe Allen is tipped for the top, with 46,000 fans on his MySpace site.

Good news about young working-class achievers isn't as exciting as tales from the gutter, but it's about time we realised the damage we are doing by presenting young people as a huge problem. They are our future, and not (whatever Time magazine says) a threat as dangerous as terrorism.

Tears and tantrums at Terminal 5

It all seemed to go so smoothly when the Queen opened Terminal 5 ... but then those pesky blighters called passengers had to pitch up and ruin it for British Airways.

The news coverage of the chaos last Thursday was terrible publicity for BA – hard to believe it once dubbed itself "the world's favourite airline". It took a whole 24 hours of tears, tantrums and countless lost bags before the chief executive, Willie Walsh, issued a public apology.

There were recriminations all round: the baggage handlers had nowhere to park; BAA hadn't employed enough security people to let BA staff into the building to start work, and there were technical failures and a lack of staff training. Passengers who wanted to complain encountered staff who seemed as confused as they were.

On top of everything, BAA has been forced to abandon its plans to fingerprint all travellers, as the Information Commissioner has raised concerns that it might be in breach of our human rights.

BA may have to delay transferring more flights to Terminal 5 from Terminal 4 next month. No matter how glossy the architecture might be, the Terminal 5 fiasco (with dozens of flights cancelled) proves my theory about travelling through Heathrow: it's a a huge effort to put myself through such a vile experience. The Government must realise that further expansion is foolhardy. It should be building a new airport in Thames Gateway.

The fatter you are, the more you pay...

Faced with a male population 10 per cent heavier than a decade ago, and women 6.4 per cent bulkier, the Japanese government is taking radical action. From April, those over 40 must have compulsory health checks, and if their waists are more than 34in for men or 36in for women, they will be ordered to go on a weight-loss programme and start a diet. If they refuse, they might have to pay higher health insurance.

High blood pressure and cholesterol, which increases the danger of strokes and heart disease, is known as metabo in Japan. Around half of men aged between 40 and 74 suffer from it – largely because their diet has changed from a traditional fare of fish, vegetables and rice towards a more Western cuisine, with dairy products, processed foods and a lot more meat.

The government, faced with escalating costs of health care for a nation of fatties, is aiming for a 25 per cent cut in the rate of metabo by 2011. But people are worried that fatties will be picked on, and outraged that the government introduced these measures without any public consultation.

Our obesity problem is far worse than Japan's. By the age of 10, around a third of our kids are overweight and unfit, and yet the Government still shies away from making school meals compulsory. Obviously, such an eminently sensible scheme wouldn't stand a snowball's chance in hell of taking off in the UK. Chubbies, no doubt led by Dawn French, would be whingeing about their human rights.

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