THE number of teenage mothers is on the increase - and they are getting even younger.

We cannot seem to stop this trend. Why? Are they not getting enough information?

That's unlikely, considering the amount they get on TV, in school and magazines.

Hey, some of the advice in those teenmags makes your hair curl!

Previous generations were cut off from all that stuff, not that I'm saying it was right, but ignorance, and fear were certainly a big deterrent.

The fear of what - shame, disgrace, poverty or God?

Governments for the past 30 or 40 years have offered no support for marriage - emotional or financial - yet all statistics, not to mention commonsense, show that children brought up within a stable family stand the best chance.

All this tripe talked about it being all right, being cool, not to be married is no good.

There is no such thing as a free lunch and it's the same with sex.

Somebody has to foot the bill, but why should it be us?

Let those families who wish to live like that pay for it. Hard? Too damn right, but not hard enough.

At the moment we are giving the young lots of information, as well as the pill or condoms, and at a very early age too, but this is having the absolute opposite effect to what it is meant to have.

We all know that family patterns, once started, are perpetuated, so how do we break the cycle' of the career single mum?

Well perhaps we should yet again follow the lead of our American cousins.

About a decade ago Bill Clinton flew in the face of all his critics and decided to crack down on all benefits, including those paid to single mums.

Up till then they had enjoyed free housing and increases in allowances' for every additional child.

His crackdown' was a huge success, and all claims are down 60 per cent and still falling.

We need a strong government to say enough is enough.'