Monitor: Comment following Tony Blair's announcement of renewed commitment to national morality

All the News of the World: Morality Crusade

The New

Statesman

LESSONS ABOUT families and marriage from teachers need reinforcement from government and employers through fiscal support, employment, regional economic development and working-time reforms to support family life. A more moral life implies a more equal nation. I hope the baby born in my constituency can get through its own young years to voting age as a normal teen-ager. (Dennis MacShane)

Daily Mail

AT THE moment, many young children in their early teens have experienced only a "family" unit that is dysfunctional, and that is allowed to be dysfunctional by the generosity of the state. Such children can hardly be blamed for assuming that this, and all the consequences that flow from it, are the norm. These are children who know nothing of the comfort, love and good example of the parents in the Blair household. But they should: and in the end it is the job of that very same Mr Blair to make policy in such a way that, before long, they have a chance to share in those benefits. If he feels he cannot take active steps to promote and shore up the married family, then he should keep quiet about his desire for the "new national moral purpose". (Simon Heffer)

The Sun

A 12-YEAR-OLD girl gets herself up the duff by her 14-year-old boyfriend and Supertone swings into action, promising "a new national moral purpose". If New Labour's record on morality is anything to go by we can expect the age of consent to be lowered to 12. This is, after all, a Prime Minister who put sodomising schoolboys at the top of his moral agenda. (Richard Littlejohn)