Every time a young person is found guilty of a terrible crime, many social observers look explanations for the decline in moral standards. Some newspaper editors come today's parents for failing to teach their children the difference between right and wrong. They argue that it is very difficult for young people to make what constitutes good or bad behaviour if these values are passed by the older generation.
Looking these arguments more closely, we find that different generations of parents are being got . As far as I can make , supporters of the Conservative Party look parents who were teenagers during the 1960s as the original sinners. These were the years when respect for authority gave way to the permissive society - the years dominated by Labour Governments.
However, left-wing commentators put bad parenting the 1980s, which have come to be known as "the Thatcher years". Without going the criticisms of Thatcherism in any great depth, it is sufficient to quote the famous speech in which she says: "there is no such thing as society." If we take the trouble to look the precise context of this remark, we will probably find that she was not encouraging people to behave badly.
It is difficult to make up one's mind whether to blame Labour or Conservative governments for falling moral standards since we can easily come examples of similar social problems throughout the affluent world regardless of political philosophies. A lot of different factors therefore have to be taken .