Raising the educational standards attained by girls is, in the long run, the key to ensuring that they begin their families later and plan how many children to have. But the initial success of the Government’s campaign to reduce teenage pregnancies bears out a contention the Tories particularly loathe: that sexeducation is more effective than ignorance. That means we can expect papers like the Daily Mail to concentrate on other aspects of our changing sexual habits, rooting about in statistics for evidence to support the unlikely proposition that nice Mr Blair is busily creating a modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah.

Joan Smith, March 25