Emma Cowing: Primary sex education is a bad idea? Tell that to these children

I DO NOT know how many 13-year-olds understand the meaning of the word "financially" in this country, but I would hope that the one who recently became a father might have been among them.

Yet when Alfie Patten, who last week burst forth as Britain's newest celebrity when it was revealed he had fathered a child with Chantelle Steadman, 15, and was photographed with his daughter, Maisie, looking disturbingly like a nine-year-old cuddling his new sister, was asked by an interviewer how he would cope "financially", he looked confused for a moment, cradled his newborn's head, then replied: "What's financially?"

Of course Alfie may not, after all, be the father. Two other boys have come forward to claim paternity, one aged 16, the other 14, while rumours are circling that as many as six more could be in the frame. A DNA test will be done this week. But whoever does turn out to be the father of little baby Maisie Roxanne, the blameless victim in this whole sordid mess, it will do little to change the fact that there is something very, very wrong with a situation where a child whose voice has not yet broken is fighting for paternity against a maximum of eight other individuals all of whom, it is alleged, had unprotected sex with a girl when she was just 14 years old.

There is, I think, only so much blame we can heap on the children – particularly when it is revealed that Alfie's father, who appears to be selling his son's story to the highest bidder and has already signed up with PR guru Max Clifford, has fathered nine or possibly ten children himself by different women. Then there are Chantelle's parents, who apparently seemed happy to let Alfie sleep over in the same room as their daughter so regularly that he kept a spare school uniform there.

But there is more to it than that. Where are the social workers in this tale? Where are the concerned teachers (it was a teacher, let us not forget, who first reported the story of the 14-year-old girl in Berwickshire who was sleeping with a man of 22 to the local social services)? And while the horse has long since bolted and a legal conviction would now only hinder this situation, it must still be asked: where were the police, given that sex with a girl under the age of 16 is still, last time I checked, illegal?

And then finally there is sex education, or perhaps the lack of it, which has let us down again, forcing us to embrace once again the all too familiar title of 'country with the worst teenage-pregnancy rate in western Europe'.

Sex education in this country must be radically overhauled and started earlier. In my view we need to go further, to social education. In the hope that they may think twice, we should teach children about the many social implications of having a baby, how it will affect them emotionally, domestically, and, of course, financially.

Suchet is right to be open on Alzheimer's

MY HEART goes out to newsreader John Suchet, who broke down on television earlier this week as he revealed that his wife, Bonnie, has been suffering from Alzheimer's for the past three years. "The past we shared is a closed book for her," he told BBC Breakfast. "Dementia has taken her. My Bonnie has gone, it's as if she has died." Suchet said that he had thought long and hard about whether or not to go public with his wife's struggle, worried that it might be a "betrayal or a discourtesy". While some may see it like that, I'm afraid I cannot be among them. Ignorance and confusion about Alzheimer's, as with so many mental disorders, is still widespread, and it often takes people like Suchet and the author Terry Pratchett, who since being diagnosed himself has spoken openly about the challenges of Alzheimer's, to start changing perceptions and improving the public's understanding of these terrible diseases. All power to him.

• MR CAMERON: a word in your shell-like, if I may. Now I know you probably spotted those camouflage 'eco' trainers on the shelf of some trendy London shoe shop called Shoo or Hooves or Trendy Tory Leaders R Us or something, and thought: "Cool! Those will make me look like a young, hip Conservative dude." David nothing, sadly, could be further from the truth. They make you look like a desperate middle-aged man trying too hard to be something he's not. Dressing like a 14-year-old who, quite literally, cannot tie his own shoelaces is not aspirational, it's detrimental. Take a leaf out of Barack Obama's book: smart, sharp, polished, and not a camouflage pattern in sight.