News1 min ago
'what Would My Old Dad Make Of The Country We've Become?'
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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.
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.
Answers
If you weren't around at the time that this Richard Littlejohn was writing about why don't you take more notice of people who were..Some of you on here are only too ready to mock and poke fun at the 40s/50s. God knows what some of you will have to look back on when you are old and grey! Well let's see ---You will have Twitter, facebook ,ipad, ipod, tablets, kindles...
20:27 Sun 11th May 2014
Yippee...thanks Zac-Master
On a serious note, I wonder whether it would be useful to compare Britain in 2014 to Britain in 1974, rather than this mythical 1954?
From where I stand (born in 1966), I would say that life now is immeasurably better than back then.
Strikes left right and centre, weekly terror attacks, appalling food choices, shortages, three TV channels, horrible cinemas (although admittedly great films), outside toilets, no central heating (at least in our house at the time), rampant racism and sexism, gay-bashing, Roger Moore as Bond.
I could go on...
On a serious note, I wonder whether it would be useful to compare Britain in 2014 to Britain in 1974, rather than this mythical 1954?
From where I stand (born in 1966), I would say that life now is immeasurably better than back then.
Strikes left right and centre, weekly terror attacks, appalling food choices, shortages, three TV channels, horrible cinemas (although admittedly great films), outside toilets, no central heating (at least in our house at the time), rampant racism and sexism, gay-bashing, Roger Moore as Bond.
I could go on...
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. ///
What has that possibly got do with all this? He is talking about his childhood, that was spent in England not in Florida.
/// 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. ///
What has that possibly got do with all this? He is talking about his childhood, that was spent in England not in Florida.
Zacs-Master
/// 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. ///
What do you class as 'over publicity by the media'? Simply reporting that some child has been abducted or assaulted by a paedophile?
What should happen in your opinion, should the media banned from reporting on such matters, so that we can all live in your rose tinted world, where such things don't really happen, it just media hysteria?
/// 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. ///
What do you class as 'over publicity by the media'? Simply reporting that some child has been abducted or assaulted by a paedophile?
What should happen in your opinion, should the media banned from reporting on such matters, so that we can all live in your rose tinted world, where such things don't really happen, it just media hysteria?
"What should happen in your opinion, should the media banned from reporting on such matters..."
It's not a difficult point to understand, really. There is a difference between reporting the facts -- the tragic fact, for example, of a paedophile abducting a child -- and then taking this fact and making it seems as if this were commonplace.
The exaggeration of such incidents makes things seem far worse than they really are. It's not at all something that just the media are guilty of, though. After the case of Jamie Bulger, for example, we had Tony Blair stand up and speak of this being "symptomatic of a broken society" which I believe at the time was hailed as one of his greatest speeches, but was nothing more than gross misrepresentation.
But it's this kind of thing that always happens. The media, and politicians, take an isolated, or at least fairly rare, incident and use it to sell the idea of a society in meltdown and on the brink of destruction and lawlessness. And it is of course this picture that such people as Richard Littlejohn are using when they speak of things being "better in the good old days". But the same sort of thing went on back then, too -- and rather like your criticism of sp living in a "rose-tinted world", so too does the older generation think of their childhood as a Golden Age in which all was perfect, or as close to it as possible. Which is odd, because they presumably forget the cries of havoc and decline from their elders at the time.
Rarely in History has anyone talked of the present as this fabled "Golden Age". It's only ever the past that is seen that way.
It's not a difficult point to understand, really. There is a difference between reporting the facts -- the tragic fact, for example, of a paedophile abducting a child -- and then taking this fact and making it seems as if this were commonplace.
The exaggeration of such incidents makes things seem far worse than they really are. It's not at all something that just the media are guilty of, though. After the case of Jamie Bulger, for example, we had Tony Blair stand up and speak of this being "symptomatic of a broken society" which I believe at the time was hailed as one of his greatest speeches, but was nothing more than gross misrepresentation.
But it's this kind of thing that always happens. The media, and politicians, take an isolated, or at least fairly rare, incident and use it to sell the idea of a society in meltdown and on the brink of destruction and lawlessness. And it is of course this picture that such people as Richard Littlejohn are using when they speak of things being "better in the good old days". But the same sort of thing went on back then, too -- and rather like your criticism of sp living in a "rose-tinted world", so too does the older generation think of their childhood as a Golden Age in which all was perfect, or as close to it as possible. Which is odd, because they presumably forget the cries of havoc and decline from their elders at the time.
Rarely in History has anyone talked of the present as this fabled "Golden Age". It's only ever the past that is seen that way.
the yobs never had guns when aog was a kid you did not have to worry about bullets whizzing past your head ?
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"...How many couples are ‘engaged’ for three years these days before getting married? Does anyone get engaged any more? And if they do, they remain engaged and don’t bother getting married. I suppose it saves them joining the 50 per cent of modern married couples who end up getting divorced after five minutes........"
Being single is financially advantageous if creaming off the state.
Being single is financially advantageous if creaming off the state.
sp1814
/// rather than this mythical 1954? ///
Mythical 1954 what do you know of 1954 only what you have since read?
/// From where I stand (born in 1966), I would say that life now is immeasurably better than back then. ///
Once again you have no idea, born in 1966 it would have been be well into the 80s before you would have any interest in what happened in the past.
/// Strikes left right and centre, weekly terror attacks, appalling food choices, shortages, three TV channels, horrible cinemas (although admittedly great films), outside toilets, no central heating (at least in our house at the time), rampant racism and sexism, gay-bashing, Roger Moore as Bond. ///
Glad to see though that you have your some of your priorities right though.
Three TV channels, not a bad thing taking that we now have a multitude of channels, with only about only three with anything on worth watching.
Horrible Cinemas??? Went to many in the 1950s did you sp? Well I did and they were large comfortable and luxuriously decorated palaces, showing a 'B' film, a 'A' film and a newsreel, and if one wanted to one could stop in all day.
'Outside toilets' I find it difficult to believe that you have any experience of these, knowing you were born in 1966. But when one thinks about it don't you find that the most unhygienic place in the house is inside the house and yet it is fashionable to eat outside (alfresco)?
'Roger Moore as Bond' In my opinion the best actor ever to play Bond.
As regards other comparisons don't get me started I could write a book, but wait a minute Richard Little John has already done so, and boy has it ruffled a few feathers, but then in this day and age speaking the truth generally does.
/// rather than this mythical 1954? ///
Mythical 1954 what do you know of 1954 only what you have since read?
/// From where I stand (born in 1966), I would say that life now is immeasurably better than back then. ///
Once again you have no idea, born in 1966 it would have been be well into the 80s before you would have any interest in what happened in the past.
/// Strikes left right and centre, weekly terror attacks, appalling food choices, shortages, three TV channels, horrible cinemas (although admittedly great films), outside toilets, no central heating (at least in our house at the time), rampant racism and sexism, gay-bashing, Roger Moore as Bond. ///
Glad to see though that you have your some of your priorities right though.
Three TV channels, not a bad thing taking that we now have a multitude of channels, with only about only three with anything on worth watching.
Horrible Cinemas??? Went to many in the 1950s did you sp? Well I did and they were large comfortable and luxuriously decorated palaces, showing a 'B' film, a 'A' film and a newsreel, and if one wanted to one could stop in all day.
'Outside toilets' I find it difficult to believe that you have any experience of these, knowing you were born in 1966. But when one thinks about it don't you find that the most unhygienic place in the house is inside the house and yet it is fashionable to eat outside (alfresco)?
'Roger Moore as Bond' In my opinion the best actor ever to play Bond.
As regards other comparisons don't get me started I could write a book, but wait a minute Richard Little John has already done so, and boy has it ruffled a few feathers, but then in this day and age speaking the truth generally does.
Sadly you will not be around to see it, but mark my words -- in 50-odd years from now, some future AOG will be lamenting the state of the world in the 2060's and how much better it all was in 2014. Every time that comes around it's utter tripe. There is no truth in your words, nor in Richard Littlejohn's diatribe.
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