One-parent families to blame

The chairman of the Conservative Party's social justice group, Iain Duncan Smith, has spent years looking at Britain's deepening social catastrophe.

His analysis should not be ignored. We are blighted by crime, welfare dependency, alcohol abuse, drug addiction and vandalism.

More than 70 per cent of criminals and drug addicts come from single parent families and most of their children end up jobless, dependent on benefits.

Successive governments have removed all fiscal support for marriage, using the tax and benefits system to encourage single parenthood.

A married couple with two children would have to work 100 hours a week more than a single parent to get the same disposable income. No wonder we have the worst rate of teenage pregnancies in the developed world.

P B Johnston, Shrewsbury