Britain was at its best in the 1950s - and has been spoiled by bad parents

Britain was at its peak as peaceful society in the 1950s, and has been ruined by bad parents, according to Frank Field.

Violent crime has soared since then because of a "collapse in the art of good parenting", the Labour MP said.

Mr Field called for schools to offer classes to teach children who were "desperate" to be good fathers and mothers.

Adults should also be given a "social highway code to spell out what is proper behaviour", he said.

In a speech at the University of Leicester, Mr Field said Britain was at its best in Fifties, a decade made famous by Prime Minister Harold Macmillan's remark in 1957 that "most of our people had never had it so good".

Mr Field said: "The 1950s were the peak years for Britain being a peaceful and self-governing kingdom. We only have to look at the levels of crime, particularly violent crime, to register just how dramatic a change has occurred."

There were now more violent crimes recorded by the police in the past 12 months than between 1900 and 1977, he said.

More people were beaten up or stabbed in his Birkenhead constituency than in the whole of the country a century ago.

The root cause of these ills was "the growing collapse in the art of good parenting", he said Read more
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