Dismay over sex guide decision

By Simon Caldwell A maul+ charity has criticised a decision not to prosecute the publishers of a sex guide for young teenagers.
Nuela Scarisbrick, national administrator of Life, said she was shocked that the Crown Prosecution Service had decided not to take action against the Brook Advisory Centres for its booklet, Say Yes? Say No? Say Maybe?.
Life had reported the booklet to Scotland Yard's Obscene Publications Unit because of the graphic illustrations and discussion of sexual activity, including anal sex.
"This is a disgraceful publication which can only encourage underage sexual activity, a criminal activity," said Mrs Scarisbrick.
"Any decent parent would be horrified if their 14-yearold son or daughter was reading this pernicious material."
She said: "Brook has received enormous sums of money from the Government over the years, so publications like this one have semi-official authority.
-The Department of Health claims to be worried about teenage pregnancy and abortion and the soaring rates of sexually-transmitted disease. This booklet will do nothing but make matters worse.
"It will openly encourage more teenage promiscuity. It will also bring more trade to Brook and the abortion industry."
The Government, meanwhile, is planning to launch a £2m contraceptive campaign aimed at young teenagers called Sex: Are You Thinking Enough About It?
It will be launched at the end of the month and will attempt to reach young people through the press and radio. The move is part of a £60m initiative announced by Prime Minister Tony Blair about a year ago.
A Department of Health spokesman said: "It is aimed at young people and talks about peer pressure to have sex before you're ready, the consequences of having sex before you're ready and how important it is to use contraception if you are sexually active."
Family campaigner Victoria Gillick criticised the move. "It's window-dressing that simply wastes taxpayers' money and normalises sexual relationships among children," she said.
"The message is have sex when you're ready and use contraception. It is what we have come to expect from the DoH and the birth control agencies. You can be guaranteed there will be no reduction in teenage pregnancies."
Robert Whelan, director of Family and Youth Concern, said only a minority of young teenagers were sexually active, and said at least 83 per cent were still virgins at the age of 16 years.
"I think the Government should look seriously at the American campaign to promote abstinence and the success it has had in lowering teenage pregnancies and give it a try here," he added. Archbishop Cormac Murphy-O'Connor of Westminster, centre, held an impromptu meeting with parishioners from St Patrick's Church, Wapping, London last Wednesday.
The parishioners were protesting at plans to close their parish school, St Patrick's, in July 2003,
because of falling pupil numbers. They told the archbishop that the school, built in 1870, would still be feasible if both its buildings were moved to a single site.
Maureen Davies, who has a granddaughter at the school, said the archbishop listened "very attentively" to the parishioners'
concerns and promised to investigate them.
"1 told the archbishop that it was the poor of Wapping who built the school. It is our children's heritage. They have no right to take it from us," Mrs Davies said.
The parishioners of St Patrick's approached the archbishop during a visitation to a neighbouring school, St Anne's, Underwood Road .
The archdiocese and the Tower Hamlets local authority told parents in March 1999 that the school would be closed. It then had 131 pupils, 32 more than in 1983.
Photo: Steve Bishop