Yob Britain

**ShadesWolf** · 06-04-2005, 14:42

The following is an extract from an article in today Mail by Alexander Bell.

Has a society ever changed so much so quickly?
In 1955, the American anthropologist G.Gorer wrote" The English are certainly amongst the most peaceful, gentle, courteous and orderly population that teh civilized world has ever seen. The control of aggression has gone to such remarkable lengths that you hardly ever see a fight in a bar and football crowds are orderly as church meetings.

Those words could hardly sound more hollow in the england of 50 years later, where anti-social behaviour prevails, where chief constables admit they have lost control of their cities, where feral children wander without restraint, where drug-taking and gun crime is rife, where family structures have broken down and authority has collapsed.

Tony Blair is quite right to speak of his anxiety about social decline, although his attitide smacks of hypocrisy, given that his government has wilfully dissolved so many of teh bonds that used to hold our society together.

From its vast expansion of teh Welfare state to its enthusiasm for uncontrolled immigration, New LAbour has been an engine of social destruction. Its a grim reflection of eight years of labour rule that we have now amongst the highest rates of lone parenthood, pensioner poverty, drug abuse and teenage pregnancy in europe, while standards of education and healthcare are falling.

I must admit I found myself nodding in agreement with this article and felt it my duty to share it with you. Ever as I know I will get a lot of stick from the more Left sided persons that visit this site. Everything is not roses. Welcome for the Labour Britain !!!!

**A.Saturnus** · 06-04-2005, 14:50

Any numbers?

**ShadesWolf** · 06-04-2005, 15:04

No its a new book - The Great Abdication by Alexander Deane (Published by Imprint Academic)

The article goes on the say that Labour are not the only people to blame but the middle classes are equally at fault.

"Rather than upholding thier own role models, the revel in the unedifying expliots of downmarket celebrities such as Wayne Rooney and his fiancee Coleen Mcloughlin, the royal couple of Chav Britain.

Where once teh middle class strove to understand teh higher aspects of culture - an outlook that led to the huge success of TV series such as K.Clarkes Civilization in 1969 - the today delight in following the inmates of C4 Big Brother."

**Al Khalifah** · 06-04-2005, 15:10

Its a by-product of modern British celebrity worship culture. Our celebrities have become our new Gods in a sense, because they seem to spell out the moral values and codes for the rest of us to abide by. This was perfectly acceptable when celebrities were respectable people who had achieved their position by merit and who would be cut down greatly by society for social misconduct and impropriety. Now our celebrities seem to have no moral code and in the world of 'do-anything-to-be-famous' television, the most disgraceful members of society are put on a stage to the country as a role-model. They also seem to be able to get away with anything, as there seems to be no such thing as bad publicity these days.
Blaming younger members of society is extremely harsh. I find anyone under the age of 50 to be just as guilty for this problem.

**ShadesWolf** · 06-04-2005, 15:39

Some good words said there, cant disagree with that

**BDC** · 06-04-2005, 16:20

I still prefer to live in modern Britain than 1950's Britain though. Wasn't a very healthy society then either. It was poor, racist, war-ravaged and intolerent.

**Steppe Merc** · 06-05-2005, 00:54

Social decline? If you have a gang problem, that is certaintly bad, but I don't see how it would be as extreme as

anti-social behaviour prevails, where chief constables admit they have lost control of their cities, where feral children wander without restraint, where drug-taking and gun crime is rife, where family structures have broken down and authority has collapsed.

I of course don't live in England, but I for one fail to see how drug taking is bad (

), or how "yobs" destroy families...

**Watchman** · 06-05-2005, 01:16

Huh. Can't say I saw any of that when I was in the UK couple of years back. But, granted, it *was* a fairly brief (about two weeks) trip...

And ShadesWolf ? You might find it interesting to know that human civilization and states have survived some eight thousand years (give or take two K) without anything classifiable as "capitalism" by modern standards, which is a concept max five hundred years old. Its real breakthrough only came with the Industrial Revolution in the mid-1800s, and by the end of the same century most states were enacting policies descripable by modern terms as "leftist" chiefly to contain and reduce the "collateral damage" it caused (like overworked and unpaid and duly restless factory workers)...

And, of course, we Scandinavians have done right fine under a pretty long spate of decidely leftist, social-democrat policies and governements.

**bmolsson** · 06-05-2005, 03:48

Sure, English people are peaceful..... Unfortunately that makes the English womens rather boring and inactive when it comes to sexual activity. Long live the immigration.....

**Tribesman** · 06-05-2005, 09:23

The good old days
Things used to be so much different before all the hoodies and yobs appeared under Blair .
Nostalgia , the realm of the forgetfull .

**King Henry V** · 06-05-2005, 09:28

Well the Guardian is only the leftist version of the Daily Mail, so if you think that's just a load lies to undermine Labour, then the Guardian is a load of lies used to undermine the Conservatives.