So many mind-boggling stories leap out of the newspapers every day that I had thought I was immune to surprises. But in this case, before reading it to my wife, I had to make her promise to accept that I was not actually making it up, or was not repeating some complicated joke.
Its headline was “NHS tells children daily sex will keep them healthy.” Yes, the NHS in Hull compares genital sexual activity with the regime of eating five portions of fruit and veg a day, as a recipe for cardiovascular health. Mr Slack (whose name is the only amusing thing in the article) is the director of the Centre for HIV and Sexual Health in Hull. He is distributing a pamphlet to parents, teachers and youth workers. It carries the slogan “an orgasm a day keeps the doctor away”. You and I are of course paying for it through our taxes. After all “they (children) have an equal right as an adult to an enjoyable sex life.” And we, presumably, have an equal right, indeed obligation, to pick up the pieces.
In case you should still suspect that I am making this up, you can read the story here.
Just to give a balance from the other end of the spectrum, Dr M B Foote MD covers some pages on the perils of solitary vice in the young. There are many. Amongst them he specifies as most common “consumption, medical depression and insanity”. On a later page he boasts of having recognised a woman as a nun (dressed in mufti) from her pallid countenance. “I instinctively diagnosed her case as one of sexual starvation.” His book, titled Plain Home Talk, was last revised in 1896.
What would we do without the experts?
secondsightblogdotnet 
probably ensuring that his job is secure for life with no fear of redundancy etc – jimc
correction:NHS probably ensuring that his job is secure for life with no fear of redundancy etc it seems – jimc
You mean, jimc, that as he’s director for HIV and sexual health his advice (if taken) will ensure a steady supply of HIV and sexual ill-health?
Never mind children, who says that even adults have a RIGHT to an enjoyable sex life?
I can’t see what all the fuss is about!
This advice fits in perfectly with the UK being the world’s abortion capital and where there are more teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases than anywhere else.
There must be money in this somewhere!
My 13-year old nephew is clearly not getting enough, as he isn’t a father yet! The mind boggles.
Even more disturbing than the NHS Sheffield leaflet was a suggestion that PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic education), the Labour Government’s social engineering and political propaganda lessons in schools, will be compulsory, at both primary and secondary level, with no provision for parents to withdraw their children if they have moral or religious objections to the content. (See http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/children_shealth/5865714/Five-year-old-students-to-get-compulsory-sex-education.html.)
So, you either go along with the idea of condoms and morning-after pills for all, from pubescence onwards, with millions spent on the treatment of STIs like chlamydia (the ‘love bug’, as it is called on one NHS poster aimed at 15-24 year olds), or you are ignored as benighted religious reactionaries.
By the way, what became of the age of consent? Isn’t the Sheffield NHS breadking the law in inciting uner-age children to engage in sexual activity?