Youv'e Never Had It So Good.

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2776842/Shocking-photos-capture-real-squalor-Britain-s-slums-poverty-meant-afford-Playstation.html

We talk about "increased child poverty", "food banks", "putting illegal immigrants in London hotels on humanitarian grounds" and yet this is how some of our people lived during the 60s.

[ummmm]

Hard life.

[2sp_]

So because we suffered from increased child poverty and food banks in the 60s, we should just suck it up and get on with it now?

Wasn't acceptable then, still isn't.

[ummmm]

I suppose the benefits system wasn't the same then. But saying that I don't suppose people had to pay extortionate rent.

[ummmm]

Life is different now. It's not acceptable to go to school with holes in your shoes and mismatched clothes. We are required to buy uniform from the school that are really over priced. My sons PE socks cost £12! That's why people don't have any money left.

[jackthehat]

Would these be 'the good old days' you harken back to so often.....?

When you are stuck in the middle of 'poverty' comparisons with earlier versions of it really are of no use whatsoever.

[mccfluff]

ahh yes, the good ole days....

[ummmm]

I'm sure someone be along to say parents spend all their money on cigarettes, alcohol and flat screen TVs...

[2sp_]

Parents spend all their money on cigarettes, alcohol and flat screen TVs

[2sp_]

(That was sarcasm, by the way.)

[hc4361]

I remember those days and those conditions. People hiding from the rent man because they didn't have the money for rent; very little protection from rogue landlords and very few rights; kids getting shoes from the local newspaper charity otherwise they had none; tv so expensive it was rented, with a slot in the side to pay for the rent and licence - no money, no watching tv; no bathroom or proper bath; one sink in the whole house, no sink in the outside loo; very few employment rights; moonlight flits to escape debts; shopping on the slate at the corner shop; no heating in the bedrooms, certainly no double glazing.

This was the early 70s in Birmingham.

[jackthehat]

Get on that naughty-step, 2sp_ ! LoL

I wonder what the parents in those photographs were frittering away their cash on?
Or does the prism of history make them more sympathetic and deserving than similar families today?

[Svejk]

yes, bit of a faux-pas on your part, aog. You cant hark back to the good old days and highlight the poverty to beat these young blighters with. Pick one or the other. ;-)

[ummmm]

Haha Planks...

[hc4361]

ummm, in the 70s school uniform was VERY expensive and could only be bought from special shops. No packs of three school shirts from Tesco in those days. If you were lucky you were able to buy a lot of it second hand but it was still a real struggle. Summer blazers, winter macs, school scarf and the shoes used to wear out before they were grown out of because the kids walked to school.

[Svejk]

I was brought up in the sixties and it was a very happy time although we didn't have much. Of course, things might have looked different from an adult perspective.

[hc4361]

There has always been the 'haves' and the 'have nots' and there will also be those that can manage on a shoestring budget and those that can't.
I expect it will forever be the same.

[ummmm]

HC...I know, I'm a 70s child. We didn't have labelled uniform though. Now the schools want their logos on everything and you can only get them from the school at a pimped up price.

Yes, we can buy cheap stuff from Tesco but they don't last, in my experience. My son has size 9 feet, you can't buy school shoes in size 9.

[anotheoldgit]

jackthehat

/// Would these be 'the good old days' you harken back to so often.....? ///

Yes 'some' had it very very tough, others no so.

But people had respect, there was discipline, hardly any mention of drugs, stabbings, gun crime, etc, etc, etc.

[hc4361]

I had size 8 feet at 11 and of course you couldn't buy children's shoes in that size in the 70s.
I started secondary school in the early 70s and my uniform was branded and even the school badges which were sewn on were expensive. Both my parents worked and really struggled.

[ummmm]

Well my uncle told me about him taking drugs 'back in the day'

We keep telling you, AOG, things look worse because of the media!

When my granddad took over his first pub in Northampton he had to get the dogs out twice on his first day. That never happened in my day!!