Dear God, things must be bad. I find myself mentally applauding an article by Madeline Bunting

The government has poured billions into propping up a bankrupt financial system, and only whimpers ineffectually about millions being paid out in bonus packages to bankers courtesy of the British taxpayer. But while its lavish generosity to one set of citizens seems to have few limits, it is hard at work on welfare reforms aimed at another set of citizens which pare back even further the meagre sums on which they are expected to keep body and soul together.

Yep, and it's all set to get worse all round. Thanks Gordo.

You couldn't make it up. A teaching pack on extremism asks pupils to prepare a presentation on the 7/7 bombings from the point of view of the bombers.

A perfect illustration of what's wrong with this country. This pack is meant to counteract extremism. What bright spark thought it would therefore be a good idea to ask children to imagine themselves into being a suicide bomber? It would make more sense to ask them to imagine themselves in the role of victim of these murderers, in order to develop some sense of empathy with their fellow human beings and thus, hopefully, make them aware that these atrocities hurt real, living people. So if the jihadists come calling with their Manichean world view and their cancerous philosophy, maybe one of them at least will turn away from it because they have experienced a ghost of the pain it causes.

The pack has now been withdrawn, but as it has already been circulated around schools, including Islamic schools, some damage has already been done. Whoever got this pack together should be sacked.

Goodbyeeee, goodbyeeee!

Abu Qatada will be leaving this country to face some serious jail time in Jordan. Excellent news. Coming on top of the new proposals for defining what is an Islamist extremist, it looks like the UK might finally be growing a set of functioning gonads.

Is there any political creed current and with influence in the world today that is more inimical to happy human existence than Islamism? In Malakand, in the north west of Pakistan, Taliban-backed militants have managed to squeeze concessions out of the government. This will not be the end of it, as emboldened by this capitulation, the militants seek ever greater concessions in ever greater areas of the country.

The chilling effect on cultural life is evident as already Peshawar has become too dangerous for entertainers to work in.

As Taliban militants gain a stronger hold in this region of Pakistan, they are imposing their view that music, singing and other such arts are un-Islamic. Several entertainers have been kidnapped or killed, while many others have fled, quit or watched their work opportunities dwindle. Criminal gangs seeking to extort money are also suspected of involvement as overall security deteriorates...

..."What can I do?" asked Zardad Khan, a popular 4-foot-2-inch comedic actor who has received several telephone threats. "I'm trying to bring smiles to the society and the people, but my life is getting more miserable with each passing day."

Khan said he used to have roles in five or six movies a month. But in the last four months, he's had only one — and he had to travel to Lahore for production because it's too unsafe to film in Peshawar.

"If we get killed, no one cares," he said.

Can anything more adequately sum up the bleakness, the greyness, the unremitting misery of Islamist rule than the banning of music, poetry, film, dance, comedy...

Things look set to get a little heated in the nation's prisons as the government attempts to get a quart out of a pint pot by loading up junior staff with more responsibility. See health and education for the template.

Talk of "efficiency drives" at a time when millions of pounds worth of public money is likely to be trousered by the very bankers who got us into the present economic mess is both hollow and infuriating. People will rightly ask if billions of pounds can be found for the banks, then why not a bit of cash for the prisons, already working on a shoestring budget? You can pretty much insert any public service into that sentence.

Summer of discontent anyone?

All sorts of hoo ha about that 13 year old kid fathering a child with his 15 year old girlfriend. The usual middle class contempt for working class people being aired and exercised, of course, and some Claire Rayneresque hand-wringing about our broken society.

Of course, it's not the best start in the world for the little girl to have underage parents. It's not the best option in the world for Alfie and Chantelle to have a child while still being children themselves. But I wish them well, because by God they're going to need some good wishes.

How did we get here? How did Britain come to top the European charts for teenage pregnancy? Yes, as Dr Crippen points out, that bad old British cultural wince about sex probably isn't helping, along with the voluntary nature of participation in sex education and, to some extent, the rise of "faith" schools with their superstitious babble. But surely, even in the face of all this, there's just enough knowledge out there to make the link between unprotected sex and babies? And so why would Alfie and Chantelle choose to risk having a baby?

I suspect it's got a lot to do with diminished expectations. Not for Alfie and Chantelle the certain prospect of A levels, a gap year bumming round Europe or the Far East then uni before dad paves the way into a nice little earner. When they look around them, they don't see people in big houses with nice jobs and nice cars going on holiday four times a year. They see minimum wage-slavery and missed opportunities, failure and frustration and poverty, all to a background of carping criticism from the people in the big houses down the road. So why not have a baby? Something to do, isn't it, and you might just get a little extra in your hand from the social.

The way to fix this? Yes, compulsory sex education; yes, good advice about contraception; yes, freely available contraception and lots of it. But also we need to think about the kind of society that abandons people to a lifetime of benefit dependency and penury, then slags them off for it.