@thetimes: 🗣️ The birth rate in England and Wales is now at its lowest in half a century, news that ought to startle us into a new existential question. Is the human race — so far the cockroach of mammals, a super-breeder in every hostile environment from the Arctic to the Sahara — no match for the modern age? The decline in British birth rates is accelerating ahead of predictions, forcing us to face up to a new reason for the baby drought. The government has dangled childcare vouchers and other baby incentives for couples but the problem may be way upstream: young people are not having children because they are struggling to form relationships in the first place. The new drought is in hooking up and having sex. Our young people are voluntarily single — ie unrelated to a shock of war — at a rate never before seen in modern history. Do we truly prefer being alone? Even at the cost of species renewal? Are we humans at a transition point between breeding like randy romantic penguins and breeding like the woebegone lonely panda? | ✍️ Helen Rumbleow Click the link to read more #fertility #birthrates #women #Relationship #uknews

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Friday 05 June 2026 09:47:40 GMT