Friday 5 December 2008

Estate of the nation

Much has been said in the Shannon Mathews case about the conditions and environment that the modern day 'working class' family exist in.The public housing estates of today seem to be enclaves of anarchy and ingrained criminal desperation heightened by drink,drugs and a total lack of restraint,morals and decency. What happened?...who did this? I was born on an estate in the 60's and lived on one until the late 70's and not once did I ever feel that my environment was anything other than safe and healthy. I knew every family on the estate to one degree or another and as such nearly all inclination to wayward behaviour was tempered by the knowledge of discovery and retribution. There where on the estate several families noted for their uncleanliness and latent criminality but they were shunned and viewed by all with distaste. My grandmothers generation went as far as washing and scrubbing the pavements outside their own homes as they made no distinction between the public and private...it was all a matter of pride, but somehow the world has retreated behind closed doors and sits deadened by cheap drink and even cheaper television programmes watched on giant plasma TVs ( a must have for the supposed poor). I do not know if this descent into moral and spiritual poverty can ever be arrested or reversed I just know that poverty cannot be used as an excuse for this decay in the life of so many...I just feel saddened that the once aspirational ordinary folk of Britain seem to have colluded with the left wing politicians and academics in this destruction of a once proud people and that the decent traditions of generations have been swept away on a tide of cheap drink,drugs and thrills.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a horrible story! Prison is too good for her. That woman should be made to suffer as her children have. A very familiar story here in the YooEss these days. I was born in '66. Although we were very poor, I remember being happy and feeling secure. My father (an alcoholic at the time) left my mother with 5 children to raise by herself. It was difficult, but she worked 2 jobs and managed to do it (without government money.) We were all fed, clothed and sheltered. We didn't have very many material things or live in a big home; but we were very clean and took pride in what we did have. People that abuse/neglect their children need to be held accountable. It's not just your government Thud, it's a world wide problem.

haddock said...

In those days anyone , no matter how old, would have their name and details in the local paper if they had been in court. We knew who the bad-uns were.... and they knew we knew and were watching out for them. Everything changed when the law was changed to prevent publication. Go back to publishing names and court records... and enforce the law that someone is responsible; if the child is said to be below the age of responsibility it stands to reason that its parents, or more likely, parent is responsible.

Unknown said...

We print the names and addresses of people who get into trouble with the law, they don't care one bit. I know a taxi man who is very busy ever Thursday bringing the same people down to court. Every Thursday it's the same. We need to instill a sense of shame and guilt among these hoodlums. But then the leftist and Guardian readers will never allow for that.