Dominic Lawson: The best population policy is to have none

1.  The longer-term results are also becoming all too clear: there is a stark imbalance between young and old, which by the middle of the century, if not sooner, will see an intolerable financial burden fall on a workforce almost outnumbered by pensioners.

2.  In 1983, the United Nations awarded the Chinese General responsible for the most brutal and coercive measures the first United Nations Population Award, together with a large sum of money and a diploma.

3.  By stressing the right of parents to have the number of children they want, it evades the basic question of population policy, which is how to give societies the number of children they need."