I’m fascinated by this “broken society” bit, I’m 75 and when I was in my teens kids went to Brighton to have a rumble, and I have to confess I was there, but it was only reported in the southern newspapers. Today it would be on 24 hour news every fifteen minutes, my parents were convinced that Britain was going to the dogs, and over my lifetime it’s always been the same cry every decade.
However this time I haven’t found it very annoying, because Cameron has decided to make it official and insult the entire community, because he’s not just talking about the bloke down the road, he’s talking about you and me, we are responsible for this supposedly broken society, though of course he wants you to believe it’s everyone else’s fault and only you can put it right.
What I’ve find funny about getting old, is people younger than me saying they daren’t go out after dark, I regularly take my dog out at any time between 10 at night and 1 in the morning and I’ve never had a moments trouble. Nottingham is supposed to be a no go area for anyone over 50, my wife and I take buses in to the cinema and amble about the great city and get the last bus home. It’s baloney, if you go looking for trouble you’ll get it, but that has always been the way things are, from when I was young living in London to now.
Britain is far from a broken society, the people I meet in down town Nottingham and in uptown Britain are great, but they suffer from nasty bigots who try to convince them they don’t live in a wonderful free thinking society, which I’m proud to say my generation started.
