Tipping Point Finally Reached…?

Little more than two hours after being pictured drinking under-age in Newquay, 16-year-old Paddy Higgins plunged 70 feet to his death from a cliff.

Sad, but inevitable when you mix teenage irresponsibility with alcohol and cliff ledges.

But this is the UK in the 21st century, and someone must be to blame, other than the underage drinker:

His parents, John and Maria, were too distraught yesterday to speak publicly but his stepmother, Shireen Higgins, spoke out to urge other families to boycott the holiday town.

She has launched a campaign group on Facebook, the social networking website, and said: "We just want to warn parents not to send their kids there.

"We are telling them 'Do not send your children to Newquay' until they do more to stop under-age drinking and fence off the cliffs."

And this being in the ‘Independent’, you’d expect a lot of supportive comments and calls for stricter controls and greater restrictions on everyone ‘for the children’.

And you’d be wrong. From the first few comments:

“Boycott stupid parents and their stupid children. That might solve the problem!”

” Why is it always someone else's fault? In this Country now its always a case of blame someone else. When are people going to start excepting responsibility.”

” Just one other thing, what were the parents thinking of? These kids are hardly going to go there to build sand castles are they!!!! WAKE UP - SMELL THE COFFEE!!!”

” Many of us regret the small group of people intent on marketing it as a place for young people to get pissed - imagine what it's like to live in the middle of all that, there is a perfectly adequate holiday market without it, and which causes much less damage and discomfort to others. But a new generation of young people have grown up in a culture which does not allow them in the playground when it is snowing in case they slip over - we have a generation that has not learned to know their own limitations and take responsibility for their own well being.”

Encouraging, no..?