Quote Originally Posted by Swissclaret View Post
I agree Outwood. It is too easy to blame a previous Government. Oldest trick in the book.

The problems run much deeper than that. None are an overnight phenomenem. The problems are also multi-faceted, which makes it even more difficult to analyse.

Two areas that stand out for me are the decline in the family unit and the move to amorality.

In the case of the former, my family were a typical working class family. However they had an ethic of working hard, being honest, living within their means, together with a sense of family pride. When I got into any trouble (not too frequently) I was in worse trouble when I got home because I had breached the family’s code of behaviour. Although my parents divorced they both still maintained that position. Being a single parent family is not an excuse.

In the case of the latter, I was raised as a Catholic but my grandparents were Protestant (CofE). Despite the religious differences they were Christians and shared a code of morality. Incidentally, this code is shared by many religions and peoples. I was raised, probably like many on here, to respect that. Whilst many in Britain for religious or societal reasons follow that code, too many are being brought up in ignorance of that code. Worse still, they look to the State to provide the ethics and boundaries.

Therein lies a massive problem when one looks at how the State, and especially politicians behave. Their behaviour, both privately and publicly over many years has impacted society.
Swiss-- such a lot of what you have posted follows much of my own upbringing and, I am sure that you will agree, you were obviously taught to have self-respect and to have respect for others in whatever you did.

Sadly, because of the breakdown of so many areas of community, there are too many young people who do not have self-respect and, consequently, they have no respect for anything or anybody and think that they can just do as they please ----and they do.
Sadly, the number is increasing on a daily business and quite a number of these people have ended up in responsible positions, both in the government and in ordinary life, however, they are unable to cope and this certainly impacts on society and there is not one sign that things will improve in my lifetime.