It was to be expected.  That Britain has been placed at the bottom of Unicef's ranking on child wellbeing was bound to lead to an avalanche of comment.  The first big wave hits the papers today - but expect more in the next few days.

In The Times Mary Ann Sieghart writes a piece on "Our generation will do all it can to help the children" The Telegraph has a report titled "Crisis point on Britain's disaffected youth"

The Guardian has two stabs at the same cherry with Libby Brooks saying its a matter of children's rights ("Its not enough to say we should listen to children" The Guardian) Whilst Michael White in the same paper writes a report picking up on Steve Webb's response for the Lib Dems:

"In any case, Steve Webb, the Liberal Democrats' Mr Wonk, said Britain had taken the American, not the Scandinavian road to "consumerist, fractured individualism" in the past 20 years, under Labour and Tory.

...Like Unicef, Mr Webb notes that national wealth, government spending levels, unemployment, even single parenthood, do not necessarily condemn a nation's children, though they are all factors. "Perhaps the UK property market is partly to blame. You can't live in half the country without being a two-income family where the parents may not see much of the kids," he observed last night."

The Guardian

Steve Webb's positioning on this debate is interesting.  He is the Lib Dem often seen to be asking for biggest tax rises.  But he is also very much associated with the Christian wing of the party, the pet views of which this story rightly plays to.

The issue generally forces us to examine our own assumptions.  No public-spirited liberals would say that the effects of children taking drugs, having sex, being unfit and spending virtually no time with their parents (amongst other sins) are a good thing. But what does the liberal Netherlands (at the top of the list) get right that so-called liberal England gets so wrong?

Also in today's news

• The Independent asks "Is Norman Baker the most hated man in Westminster"
• In America we need to remember that The Blog giveth, but that The Blog can also taketh away:  "Blog backlash hits Edwards" The Guardian
• Only Boris Johnson, newly revealed as a fellow drinking/rioting buddy of David Cameron in their Bullingdon Club days, could say:
  "... since we are really talking about the growing gulf between the middle classes and the new super-rich, we should really refer to the haves and the have-yachts." Lets have schools to match London's wealth - The Telegraph.