We can be proud of our young

WE often hear a lot of negativity said about the youth of today and, as can be seen in our pages on many days, some of this can be justified.

But, of course, that is the nature of news. By its nature it concentrates on those things that are more unusual.

We do not carry stories about the thousands of young people who go to school, work and play hard, cause no offence to anyone and enjoy their lives with their families and friends.

This is because they are in the majority and their existence is the normal state of things. News is what happens outside of the normal.

So the very fact that we carry so many stories about young people acting violently or anti-socially is partly because they are in the minority.

Most, in fact, almost all, young people are well-behaved and a credit to their parents and their community. We know that and do our best to reflect that in our reporting.

So it is always a delight when there is a good excuse to report on some of those majority. And today we are reporting on some of the best of that majority of young people in the regional winners of the county council’s 4Uth awards.

This magnificent seven will receive their awards at the annual finals night at County Hall later this month.

The winners, one from each district in the county, are all remarkable young people and are more representative of their peers than those who regularly make the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

We also cover the Games of Remembrance to commemorate those fine young men who lost their lives in the First World War.

They, like those who followed in the Second World War and subsequently, showed bravery well beyond their tender years.

In the Great War it is believed that up to 250,000 boys under the age of 18 served in the Army, many going on to serve on the front line despite the official minimum age of 19.

Hopefully our young people will never have to answer such a mass call-up to defend our way of life. But we can be confident that if it ever happens our young people would be up to it.