'what Would My Old Dad Make Of The Country We've Become?'

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2624678/Richard-Littlejohns-lost-world-The-Mails-incomparable-columnist-born-welfare-dependence-immigration-elfnsafety-asks-What-old-Dad-make-country-weve-become.html

There are many on AnswerBank who dislike Daily Mail columnist
Richard Little John, but maybe might still find this an interesting look back at how things once were.

[Gromit]

That is just a long advert for his book.

// When I set out to write my new book, Littlejohn’s Lost World, I didn’t want it to be just another memoir. 
Writing the book, which the Mail begins serialising on Monday //

Thanks for the warning. That was very dull, I will not be buying the book.

[whiskeryron]

Thank you aog for bringing that item to our attention, I read the article with great interest & sorrow for what we have truly lost in this my lovely country.

WR.

[sp1814]

I would rather get my social history from writers such as Dominic Lawson or Andrew Marr, because they actually live here.

As opposed to Richard Littlejohn, who files his copy from his home in Florida.

[Zacs-Master]

Yes, just an advert. I love the hypocrisy of saying that kids played out more when it is the over publicity by the media which leads modern parents to think that there is a paedo round every corner.

[Peter Pedant]

what would your old dad say ?

buy my book and make me munnay !
that sentiment seems never to change.

[sp1814]

http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/daily-mail-responds-criticism-lucy-meadows-coverage-saying-suicide-note-did-not-mention-press

[pixie373]

What an ignorant man. I haven't read anything of his before, that i can remember. How can someone so unobservant be a journalist?

[B00]

It was also boring- got halfway through before I closed the window.

[Peter Pedant]

O god is he in Florida !

sensible chap ! well out of the way of the changes he abhors.

Very fluid style and very readable - I just wondered if I wanted to read 200 pages of very well written " why o why have things changed..."
Dickens might be a better read

[Zacs-Master]

Chucklsome
http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Richard_Littlejohn

[jim360]

I dare say that his old Dad would be appalled. I dare say, too, that his old Dad's old Dad would have been unimpressed about how things had changed since he "was a lad". It's well-nigh impossible to find an older generation that isn't disgusted about the way things have changed. In 60 years' time I'll probably be saying the same things myself, or at least someone my age will be. It doesn't really mean much -- if you took any generation seriously then presumably humanity was at its peak at the end of the last Ice Age and has been on a steady decline ever since.

[Gromit]

I didn't know that sp1814.

So he is an immigrant in the United States. And taking the job of a British based journalist, so effectively putting someone out of a job. I wonder what his tax situation is. Hope he is not avoiding paying HMRC their share.

[sp1814]

Littlejohn's Britain – Publisher: Hutchinson (3 May 2007) ISBN 0-09-179568-0 – described by The Observer as "lampooning New Labour with polemic, pastiche, parody, satire and savage social commentary".

The New Statesman said of it: "Littlejohn's Britain doesn't exist. Literally. He spends much of the year writing from a gated mansion in Florida, and admitted in a recent column that, when he is in Britain, he rarely leaves the house. He is describing a country he sees only through the pages of the right-wing press and his self-reinforcing mailbag."

[Gromit]

I agree with BOO, I only got halfway because I found it boring.

He started to sound like Ron Manager - "Jumpers for goalposts, Bovril afterwards, freshly cut grass, you mother applying a knee plaster.... Zzzz"

[sp1814]

I am sure that Mr Littlejohn's book will do very well, but if this thread is simply here to advise fellow AB'ers of jolly good reads, may I recommend 'Gone Girl', by Gillian Flynn.

It is by far and away the best thriller I've ever read. I'm a notoriously slow reader and I've already finished half the book in three days.

It's literally un-put-downable.*




(Okay, not 'literally', it's not covered in glue or anything).

[B00]

Wonder if they write these articles whilst their washing's whizzing round the washer and their dinner's dinging in the microwave? ;-)

[Zacs-Master]

Apparently 'literally' literally doesn't have to mean literally anymore.
http://grammar.about.com/od/words/a/literallygloss.htm

[Kromovaracun]

Interestingly, he says that nobody minded whether he read comics - but these were subject to a grossly exaggerated and rather ridiculous moral panic in the 1940s and early 50s - just like every other form of entertainment always is.

[humbersloop]

//The Mail's incomparable columnist//

they got that bit right

[DrFilth]

i know you think i am a racist aog so hope you don't mind me posting on your thread

form your link

> I shudder to think what Dad, who died in 1995, would have made of modern Britain, where the Welfare State has shamelessly institutionalised idleness as a way of life and six million people sit at home claiming an assortment of out-of-work benefits, while jobs they could be doing are filled by foreign immigrants imbued with the work ethic. <

from the office for national statistics
>The number of people out of work fell by 77,000 to 2.24 million in the three months to February, according to the Office for National Statistics. <

> The claimant count - the number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance fell by 30,400 to 1.14 million in March. <

Understanding unemployment:

> A person is classed as unemployed if not only out of work, but also actively looking for work and available to start work within a fortnight <


>The unemployment figure is higher than the claimant count as many jobseekers do not or cannot claim JSA <


so which figures are true ? the mail or the office for national statistics ?

and

how many do not claim for an assortment of out-of-work benefits ?