Excuse me butting in on your conversation here but I'd like to say this is precisely how I feel in south-central Europe. The whole region surrounding southern Switzerland, from Provençe in the west, Amalfi in the south, Vienna in the east and perhaps even Bavaria to the north (which admittedly requires an asterisk) is, to my mind; cultured and comfortable, humanity has reached closest to an unwritten ideal around these parts and I always come back feeling refreshed and invigorated. What a shame the UK has become such a back-water. Nonetheless, it is reassuring to know that there are people here such as us who appreciate it.
Cosi, I really don't know where the British, I was going to say English, went wrong, we used to be respected throughout the world, "Made in britain" and all that, not any more, maybe its our close alliance and psuedo social mimic of the USA thats the problem. I do believe the sixties have a lot to answer for, lack of respect for authority, even if the authority was not exactly perfect, but to reject it and not to replace it with something better was irresponsible and for the worse in the long run. I loved the satirical stuff at the time but it simply destroyed that which was basically good about this country, satire never shows the way forward, hence we stagnated, its easy to destroy, but its not so easy to build solid and wothwhile foundation is it. We have lost our unique status, these European areas you refer too have retained their class and uniqueness regardless of certain political misadventures, why havent we done that ? France in particular defends vehemently againt that which it feels will affect its wellbeing and culture, perhaps we should oppose these Brussels imposition more.
Just in from a day painting at my son's place - I hope I get the 72 virgins in heaven !!! (but perhaps I'd rather have a half-a-dozen 'women of the world'. What went wrong with England ( Britain if you must).? Well - dreadful politicians, crooked authorities, left-wing nobodies, unions, teachers who couldn't spell and were tolerated. Governments 'buying' votes ie 'The Welfare State'. Rubbish in the street being tolerated. Company/Corporate management following the US example and electing 'Remuneration committees' who saw nothing wrong in directors being paid hundreds of times the average pay in their business. You've really got me started now......
Talking of rubbish and in particular Bergy, litter; yesterday I was at the point of making a section 24A Citizen's arrest on someone who, accompanied by friend, walked up to a bin and deliberately 'missed' dropping his Coke can into it, thereby leaving it on the pavement. He then made a movement of hand to forehead as if he was stupid or that the bin was stupid for not being big enough for such carelessness, and walked off, chuckling to his friend. These guys were in their early 20s. I went straight over to them and explained what would happen if the culprit did not immediately adjust the situation, so as to avoid a less than happy outcome. To begin with he was foolishly cheeky, showing off to his friend. I marched him back (without touching him at this stage) and told him to remain quiet or I would arrest him for his first offence of littering, and would detain him until Police arrived. You can imagine his astonishment. He went back to the bin, picked up the offending article and wanted to shake my hand. Litter makes me seriously angry. It is rarely the result of genuine carelessness and almost always a deliberately conscious decision. It is a criminal offence and some of these people need to learn that lesson quickly. If I see him do it again, or the friend he was with, they will find that I do not make hollow threats.
Hats off to you, mate. In this day and age you deserve a medal - it takes REAL courage to face up young men. There appear to be so many cowards who think it is somehow big to beat people up, when backed by a 'gang'. But then I'd birch them all in public (offenders not all young men). For those who don't know- look it up.
Bergy, what the hell are you going to do with 72 virgins, you'll bloody well hurt yourself, as you say a woman of the world will be much more fun. Cosi, Just be careful, I did something like this in 2004 with some unruly campers, raised my blood pressure and had a brain haemorrhage.
However they took away most bins due to the shambles of our approach to the 'troubles' and the risk of bombs.......
Good man cosi, good man... Just give my generation a kick up the backside and they'll fold quick enough
The annoying thing is every pensioner age group has always had issues with the younger ones. The reality is that there is no real problem, and the new generation is fine. What IS a problem are the cultural changes. ie. acceptance of living on benefits, drunken rowdiness (violence by females!) , drug abuse, general abuse, litter, the school run if its a short walk, loss of pride for your neighbourhood/environment, general dishonesty/loss of morals (sexual doesn't bother me - but crime does), inner city gangs. Not a nice outlook is it?
No No No. I was there for the cricket! A litter picker told me off for leaving my sandwich box next to me at the train station. I asked him where the bin was and he told me there wasnt any because colchester is a garrison town. So where the **** was I supposed to put it? the whole situation didnt make sense AND ALSO IF I DIDNT LEAVE MY RUBBISH NEXT TO ME (I wasnt going to leave it by the way, I was still currently eating the sandwich) THEN THE LITTER PICKER WOULD PRETTY MUCH BE REDUNDANT OF ANY DUTY IN THAT PERIOD OF TIME!!!
Why doesn't london (more specifically, city of westminster) seem to have any bins? Last time i was down there i had to throw my litter in the thames. I felt terrible, i hate littering. It's a sign of the feeble.
Bring back National Service, get these "hoodies" into the forces and teach them some respect. With any luck, they'll come out with some national pride, respect for their peers, elders and most importantly, themselves.
