tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post920360828373605976..comments2023-11-03T11:32:01.540+00:00Comments on Thought Experiments : The Blog: Shannon MatthewsBryan Appleyardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08276787058430388582noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-65225551949085092382008-12-05T16:50:00.000+00:002008-12-05T16:50:00.000+00:00Britian today has many faults but is it really so ...Britian today has many faults but is it really so shit? 100 years ago children were sweeping chimneys. Not long before that children were working 14 hour factory shifts and dying before they were 20.<BR/>The only real golden age was twenty years or so after the creation of the welfare state. And if the economic downturn is as savage as they say we may even look back on today as a golden age.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-86628446948222494002008-12-05T16:22:00.000+00:002008-12-05T16:22:00.000+00:00A squalid little English story.A squalid little English story.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-69810105793479283162008-12-05T15:25:00.000+00:002008-12-05T15:25:00.000+00:00My mother's family were working class Rotherham fo...My mother's family were working class Rotherham folk. It's interesting comparing my grandmother's life with that of my mother's sister, and my cousins. My grandfather died when my mother was about 3 or 4 (1950ish) and from then on my grandmother had to work (as a cleaner) to keep things going - 3 kids, no dad. Whenever a bill came in she would pay it instantly. She wasn't a nice person but she Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-3104541682210288072008-12-05T14:41:00.000+00:002008-12-05T14:41:00.000+00:00Brilliant stuff, passer byBrilliant stuff, passer byBryan Appleyardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08276787058430388582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-40795570455048148502008-12-05T11:23:00.000+00:002008-12-05T11:23:00.000+00:00I come from a council estate in Sheffield called P...I come from a council estate in Sheffield called Parson Cross, when I grew up in a good catholic family we went to church on Saturday and Sunday and generally stayed for the social event afterwords usually bingo, when my mum had problems with brother skipping school the priest came around for a chat, when there was a problem the solution usually involved someone you knew thru the church. No it Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-2355238555617872032008-12-05T11:22:00.000+00:002008-12-05T11:22:00.000+00:00They may have missed the irony, much of Fleet Stre...They may have missed the irony, much of Fleet Streets output is only fit to hold fish and chips, many journalists unfit to comment on society. <BR/>The rub is of course how much we, the British taxpayer fund the lifestyle of these people and one of the main reasons for its existence. Try cutting it off, now.maltyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02936465848907794425noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-19817338178992382402008-12-05T10:11:00.000+00:002008-12-05T10:11:00.000+00:00I agree with Brit. In our nice, middle-class, unb...I agree with Brit. In our nice, middle-class, unbroken household last night there was much swearing when the BBC thought it was better to cancel Little Dorrit and show us a hastily compiled Panorama on the Shannon Matthews case instead - because obviously they haven't provided quite enough detail about this thoroughly dismal case already. Not so much widely reported as completely overdone, I Sophie Kinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05212037697701712380noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-65789968729700029112008-12-05T09:16:00.000+00:002008-12-05T09:16:00.000+00:00From what you say, Fleet Street probably did say s...From what you say, Fleet Street probably did say so out of snobbery, or if not that precisely then a misguided conviction that their readers were dim and Fleet Street knew better. I'm thankful those days are gone. Were stories like this not widely reported and so deftly summarized - together with the equally depressing stories about drugs and the gun culture - then we might have an excuse about Markhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06074816573442173758noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-27010751751097155552008-12-05T09:13:00.000+00:002008-12-05T09:13:00.000+00:00Some sort of good might come of these fish and chi...Some sort of good might come of these fish and chippy stories if the 'lessons' people took from them were meaningful.<BR/><BR/>But as usual everyone just hammers the social services, or talks about 'broken Britain' and TV dinners and the fact that schookids don't get caned. This is all nonsense because most of Britain is nice and middle class and unbroken.<BR/><BR/>What we ought to be talking Brithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00390560583798960760noreply@blogger.com