Britain today has two nations of children. The first is raised by parents diligent to the point of obsession, who nurture their offspring's development, even in utero, fret over dietary dangers, childcare manuals and school league tables, and fan the slightest spark of musical or sporting talent; parents - both fathers and mothers - who invest more income, time and mental space in their progeny than any previous generation.

The second nation is presented in the Children's Commissioners' report. These children are twice as likely to be obese, likely to have a teenage pregnancy or mental illness and less likely to stay at school after 16. As babies or toddlers they evoke sympathy - and government investment in nursery places or early years centres might win approval- but once they reach 12 or 13 these children, the product of broken, abusive or simply very low-income homes (half of children in poverty have working parents), cease being regarded as vulnerable and are perceived only as a threat.

They are labelled “yobs”, “thugs” or that despicable term of class- loathing, “chavs”. Their very presence on a bus or street is menacing. Public money invested to bring music, sport or after-school activities - those things that the first nation of children take for granted - is dismissed as social engineering. Far more popular are putative measures, ASBOs or locking up young people. In this, at least, Britain leads the Western world.

“Social mobility is no better than it was in the Seventies,” say the Commissioners. And, moreover, social inequality is far worse. In 1980 directors of FTSE companies were paid ten times more than their average employee: now that figure is 80 times more. I grew up in the Seventies, and the gulf between the richest and poorest child was between a caravan in Skegness and a trip to Costa Blanca. Since materially no one had very much, to have little was less disgrace.

Today being a have-not can be measured in the trainers you buy, your iPod or phone, whether your family takes two long-haul holidays and a ski trip a year or none at all. Magazines and adverts ram home the message that to lack these brands makes you a loser, a nobody.

There are no votes in child poverty. The second nation shows little gratitude, the first carps at the expense. But, given the skewed inequality of our society and the 31 murders of young people already this year, it is imperative that the second nation of children receives all the opportunities of the first.

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