IT’S quite amazing to learn that fewer children are smoking or drinking alcohol than at any time in the past 20 years.

New NHS figures reveal only one in six of those aged eight to 15 said they had tried alcohol, which is the lowest figure recorded and down from 45 per cent in 2003.

More than 5,700 children were surveyed and only four per cent had ever tried a cigarette. Experts say they are part of the “clean-cut generation” who spend most of their time on the internet rather than in parks and pubs and are also less likely to take drugs.

This is good news and fascinating because, probably for the first time, children are not taking after their parents’ habits. In fact, it does make you wonder if, having seen what drinking and smoking does to their parents, children have decided not to go down that road.