Young people are the business

Lazy, ignorant, shallow and irresponsible, more interested in taking drugs than in proper study, too apathetic to make it to the polling station but not to an ecstasy-fuelled rave: those are the images often associated with young people in modern Britain. Survey after survey shows widespread illiteracy and innumeracy among teenagers. At the ever-expanding universities, it is said that terror of placing too heavy an intellectual burden on students has resulted in remorseless grade inflation and undemanding degree courses like media studies and golf-course management.

The anxiety about youth is graphically reflected in the current hysteria about binge drinking. A generation of young semi-alcoholics, whose entire lives are geared towards explosive, sodden hedonism, is supposedly threatening the fabric of our society. Yet amid this increasing moral panic one awkward fact stands out: alcoholic consumption among students — who now make up a far larger proportion of young people than 20 years ago — is actually on the decline.