Britain one of the worst place for children?

[Lord Winter]

Link (http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4059)


I didn't realize that the UK had that much of problem. I'm curious what our British members think on this article. Is it just the media trying to find an headline by inflating statistics or is there actually a genuine problem?

[Myrddraal]

I think comparing it to Iraq, Zimbabwe, the Congo and India is a bit harsh...

[Marshal Murat]

Well, of the four other nations, three were previous British colonies.

Maybe it's a cultural thing, like bad teeth care and such.

[Husar]

At least the congolese kid has a gun for self-defense. :hide:

[Slug For A Butt]

I agree it's like comparing apples and pears, BUT

I recognise that Britain that is described. Britain is becoming a nation of lazy, do-nothing, let your kids run riot while you sit at home spending your Giro (Government money) on super strength beer and cigarettes type of society.
The parents have no respect for anything except the Giro so why would their children know any difference? We have a generation of Poles coming to Britain now doing the jobs that these people are too well paid by the state to do themselves.
I feel sorry for a lot of the kids growing up in my country at the moment, right up to the point that I see 3 of the little 10 year old b%%%%%ds throwing bricks at my car at 12 at night when they should be at home if their parents gave a :daisy: about them.
I wouldn't want to be growing up as a child of the "oppressed poor minority" in Britain now as I would learn nothing except how to steal and disrespect.
There are exceptions to every rule of course, but the general trend is towards a crap upbringing by crap parents who have lived on benefits their whole lives so guess what? the kids think that is normal.
I'm glad that my kids are in their twenties and past the influential stage now (and if I ever caught either of them in a "hoodie" I'd beat them as only a father can do. Gay I can live with... hoodie is plain wrong). :smash:

[Mikeus Caesar]

As much as i'd like to say it's just sensationalist journalism, they are kind of right.

If you're a poor kid in Britain, you're pretty much screwed. You end up having a third-class life, education, everything. Generally lose hope and give up trying, and subsequently become some oik on a council estate who constantly causes trouble and then scrounges off the state for the rest of their life. Hence the smoking, drinking and getting pregnant.

If you're middle class, you're life is much more comfortable, and you get a decent education, but at the same time you'll usually be pressured by parents and by school especially into doing well. Most middle class kids subsequently end up pretty miserable. Hence the smoking, drinking and getting pregnant.

If you're rich, well, you get live in an ivory tower away from all the troubles of the world.

[Slug For A Butt]

Mikeus you are such a throwback to the last century!!!!

EVERY kid gets to go to University now (very wrong), there are also no class barriers (actually. reverse discrimination is being encouraged now ~:rolleyes: )
It's all about your childs mentality, if your kid doesn't give a :daisy: because that is what you've taught them then yes they'll end up on the scrap heap and cost me a fortune in taxes in their council flat with 7 kids because they are looked after for life then.
If we still have classes, I'm working class and so is my wife. So how have my kids grown up having values that the rest of their friends in this "deprived" area laugh at? Their friends laugh at them because they have mortgages and don't scrounge, it's nurture not nature.
Every one of those 14 year old kids getting pissed out of their heads and causing trouble on the street corner every night of the week has the chance to go to university now. So why do you think they don't?
Speak to their parents, that's why Britain is a bad place to bring up a child now.

[Mikeus Caesar]

Slug - i'm not a throwback, i'm speaking from firsthand experience.

Up until last June i was attending a state school. The poorer kids were precisely as i described them - doomed. The middle class kids didn't have much future either - doomed to a life of the same boring white collar job with a pile of debt trailing them till they're 40.

And as for the rich kids, they're also as i described - completely unaware of the realties of the world, but with such a good education they didn't need to worry about it.

Obviously there are exceptions, such as your kids. I also know some poor kids who managed to pull themselves up from the hell they were born into. Unfortunately, they are very much the minority.

[Devastatin Dave]

I fear I lost many brain cells reading that article. What globalist tripe.:laugh4:

[Slug For A Butt]

Strange Mikeus. I went to the best Grammar school in the area when I was a child and I never knew the silver spoon chilfren you seem to be describing.
And especially now, 20-30 years later these class barriers just don't exist. EVERY child that can spell their own name can go to univerity, which is why employers are saying that a university degree means nothing and is also the reason that university graduates are bitching that they get into debt and don't earn much more these days. Every kid gets one and hence it means nothing.
The only kids that dont get a uni degree are the ones that don't care these days and I'll put money on it that most of these kids are living in bloody council houses that their parent has had for the last 15 years.

[Mikeus Caesar]

Well, the times do change.

[CountArach]

I think the eintention may have been to compare it to what it could realistically be in the short-term, in which case I suppose the British may be lagging behind. On the other hand the issues that they describe as being problems are problems down here as well, though Teenage pregnancy really isn't as a big an issue.

[Husar]

Piling up debt is a good thing, I heard countries need to have debts to flourish. :2thumbsup:
When I finish studying I'll have a pile of debt as well but since I plan to become rich that isn't really a problem, but it's true that universities are so not elite anymore, that's why we designate elite unis here now. :laugh4:
Well it's the promise that with capitalism all the living standards will be raised so everybody thinks "hey, I can get a good white collar job" and goes to university. Of course the result is that employers choose only the best students and the rest will have to go for lower jobs in which they lock out the less educated who will have to go for the really "bad" jobs then, high unemployment then assures that it all gets worse, at least here.
Maybe a society where evwerybody is a white collar middle class guy doesn't really work because there will be no one to clean the toilets or carry away the waste. :sweatdrop:

[Bijo]

Britain one of the worst place for children?
This title seems already very misleading and very suggestive. In any case, let me say the following: the whole damn world is a terrible place not just for children, but for all humans :laugh4: Some places are just worse than others and Britain is still a place in the West where reasonable or good prosperity is.

[Myrddraal]

The whole university is a case of semantics.

The employers are after the best employees, they know perfectl well what a good degree is, and what a mikey mouse degree is.

So we can all whinge that people studying David Beckham should get a degree, but we should realise that someone with a degree in Medicine from the Russel group of uni's is going to get the better job.

There's no tragedy in letting everyone go to uni, because the employers are very good at working out who's got the better education. The tragedy is that those who do David Beckham studies might be lead into thinking this is the best way for them to get a high paid job, which is a lie.

[Scurvy]

EVERY child that can spell their own name can go to univerity, which is why employers are saying that a university degree means nothing and is also the reason that university graduates are bitching that they get into debt and don't earn much more these days. Every kid gets one and hence it means nothing.

not true, employers can distinguish between them, it was a mistake making poly's into uni's though, as it changes the significance of a degree in itself.



The only kids that dont get a uni degree are the ones that don't care these days and I'll put money on it that most of these kids are living in bloody council houses that their parent has had for the last 15 years.

...I think you underestimate how hard it is for kids to motivate themselves in that way, its partly due to role-models, both parents (who are able to live of state benefit) and celebrities (who become rich + famous in many cases without doing very much).



Up until last June i was attending a state school. The poorer kids were precisely as i described them - doomed. The middle class kids didn't have much future either - doomed to a life of the same boring white collar job with a pile of debt trailing them till they're 40.



slightly pessimistic... state schools aren't all that bad... they do at least provide an education, food etc.

:2thumbsup:

[Fragony]

Zimbabwe India and Congo, and Brittain?? Someone cut their no doubt all to available funding, socialist propaganda :thumbsdown:

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

From my own experience this is an English rather than Welsh or Scottish problem. The issue is to do with the society we have been brought up in, these days were are taught that everything is relative and all beliefs are equally valid, which devalues everything.

Add that to the lack of stigma about being a teenage mum or on the dole and you get our society.

I think it's called "cluture crash" or something, post-Colonial England has no values.

[Shahed]

Link (http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4059)


I didn't realize that the UK had that much of problem. I'm curious what our British members think on this article. Is it just the media trying to find an headline by inflating statistics or is there actually a genuine problem?

teh old ... dude.

Anyway I'm not surprised at all. Just go to Holland and see the difference, it's obvious why their kids are happiest. Free society man, I LOVE Holland !