DON'T ABANDON BRITAIN'S 'LOST BOYS'

BRITAIN is in danger of abandoning a whole generation of boys to a bleak life without hope - with "destructive" consequences for the nation, campaigners warn.

- David Williamson

It is feared the UK will face more rioting and even higher prison numbers if the country's crisis of "lost boys" spirals further out of control.

There is also growing alarm that Britain is storing up critical problems for the future if it turns a blind eye to boys' educational failings and the high suicide and imprisonment rates of young men.

Former England rugby captain Lawrence Dallaglio has called for society to stop treating boys and young men as the "lowest of the low".

He said he is fed up with seeing the country's youths "on the employment scrapheap and filling up our prisons".

He said: "Enough is enough. Boys and men matter just as much as anyone else, and it's time that we got serious about that." A major research project is being launched by the Centre for Social Justice to break the cycle of disaster for boys.

Miriam Cates, a former MP and senior fellow at the CSJ who battles to protect the quality of childhood in the UK, said: "We must step in to rescue a generation of boys and men who are at risk of falling out of society, at great cost to themselves and us all." She warned that "large numbers of disenfranchised young men are always a destructive force in society" and claimed the "riots over the summer were in large part a reaction to the sharp decline in value and status felt by working class British males".

The think-tank states men have a suicide rate more than three times that of women and are much more likely to be behind bars or sleeping rough. Ninety-six per cent of prisoners are men and in London 82 per cent of those on the streets are male.