to find the whole Broken Britain thing a load of horse crap?

[slightlystressed]

It's really irratating me now, Britain has never been "fixed".

I know Mr Smuggness will be our next PM, and I've been trying to avoid him, but he's frikin' EVERYWHERE! Using the Edlington case to highlight his theory was pretty poor aswell.

God, Im going to unplug the TV for a few days after the Election, his smuggness just might make me explode!

90 per cent so far!

Anyway - the original question was is Britain broken and I pointed out that the bad behaviour I witness in a local town would suggest so. Well in some places.

I'm not advocating no benefits but merely suggesting that a lack of work ethic and reliance on benefits amongst a certain section of the community is certainly not helping matters.

As we can only make our own judgements based on what we have experienced, It would be interesting to know what those who actually work at the 'coalface' think. I am sure the social workers, police, nhs workers (a nd e on a saturday night, anyone?) would have a very strong view of whether Britain is broken or not.

Anyone have any other suggestions as to why? Lack of religion? Discuss!

Hmm this ismore my field than youmight think... religion degre, last job was for the charity homestart....

you know what I think.

Lack ofreligion? Nah.Lack of the things that sometimes gowith a religion such as selfrespect (agian), community.... absolutely. They are not only found in religious communites though.

isn't Britian always broken before an election?

what will the tories do, get us all to go to BUPA to fix it?

2old4

A simpleQ

Would you say ono balance you are a better person than me becuiase you don'tclaim benefits?

You know those dolls they give to teenagers, Riven, to show them what hard work it is to care for a baby? I think anyone who grumbles about carer's allowance should be supplied with a large ASD doll who gets up in the middle of the night and thrashes the place, and who makes a run for it every time you take it into a public place.

NO Peachy I'm not a better person. I consider myself very lucky to have what I have but I have worked for it through adversity and do a job that most people would hate. Luckily, I love it and consider myself blessed.

I did say that benefits should be there to help people like you. I am just talking about teenagers I know that as soon as they have a baby it cost the taxpayer £1500! Well around here it does! I think they need to grow up and learn to look after themselves before they have a little person to look after. Anyone can be a mum but it's bloody hard work tobe a good mum! Again, through my job I meet a lot of different people in different circumstances. I can only base my opinions on the behaviour I have witnessed. Who knows what goes on behind closed doors? Good and bad.

Riven - your comment assumes that a mother's role is to earn a living rather than look after her children. Contentious issue , I think! ( runs for cover...)

As I know Riv in RL amPMSl at that, so not who she is (not that you could know of course,just tickled me)

2 thank you for that.I relaise I have issue as so many people do assume all it tkaes iw ork;ds4is at respite this morning and I have been yelling at The Wright Show forsimialr reasons.

perhaps I am unusual in that I have tried so ahrd,maybe the duisability bit is just pure bad luck?I don'tthink I am any different to all the kids I grew up with though, certainly not in any way better. Or ahrderworking- Dad is the ahrdest working person I ever met and yet in council housing. Maybe it is as simple as I ammroe able tot hink creatively about changing things, but then surely that could be taught to children at a young age? The boy'sschool has posters everywhere yelling resillience!',maybe it shoudl be creative thinking and creating opportunities as well? Beinga ble to separate yourself fromthe crowd and act independently? I am sure that could be taught,or modelled
via mentors or something.

Peachy - I'm new to this - too many abbreviations for me to understand! RL? PMSI?
Sorry to be ignorant!

I was thinking about the whole work ethic thing last night - kept me awake! I think both me and my brother seem to have a fear of poverty and have exactly the same attitude to moeny and work because we got that from our mum. She was orphaned in the war and had a horrible time for 5 years or so ( and I mean really horrible) until she was fostered by a kind couple. She always worked as she was so scared of being 'without' again. My children seem to have followed my example and are good savers and feel jittery if they have no money in the bank!

As regards your Dad - when I grew up council houses were usually occupied by hard working people like him - they just were in jobs that didn't pay enough to get a mortgage. My in laws rented the same house for most of theit working lives and could only buy it under the right to buy scheme - FIL was a lathe operator and MIL a carer for the elderley.

I guess some of us do have some bad luck. I was just lucky that when I was down I was given a chance to become self employed but it took a lot of guts. I have since helped another single mum do the same.

I know there's a lot of people out there doing a good job. However, the fact still remains that I was shocked to the core by the behaviour I witnessed in a town only a few miles away fom me. And this behaviour didn't used to exist.

Has anyone seen this?Cameron Ad

It existed when I was at schoolyou know,I remember it.Now, it may have spread- where I was raised was always a particularly difficult area.

Dad is stillin HA, but through no fault ofhis own- pensionpalcn collapsedtwiceover,the budget to buy their own bungalow went with it.

there seem to be many similarities betwen us; FILwas abandoned in the war (orphan?war baby?who knows) and dad was s poor ascan be- 15th child of an invalid and an alcoholic, I am sure that influenced their work ethic.

Dh is now self employed as well as studying but for atm it isn't a possibility- I hope it will be one day, it is a back up plan.
There is scopeforthat in the ASD world but amnot sure the battling for contracts etc would suit me- I amthe sort would give their timeforfreeinadvisedly when feeling a draw and lose everything.just my nature.

RL= reallife;PMSL-peeing myselflaughing which wasn'tafelectionon yourpost just the irony of it being that Riv is someone I know chose to be aSAHM formany years despite a PHd

Spoldge

That made me PMSL

And whilst I decry the vandalism language well heck,at least they spelled it correctly

I think you should all join this facebook group Let's get every David Cameron poster in the country properly finished

I liiiiike it

Ok thanks for explaining abbreviations.

thanks builde

exactly - i think the uk is very family friendly i truly do - loads of free parks, good primaries on the whole, inexpensive healthy food (30p for 4 apples in morrisons today), good hospitals with a couple of fantastic midwives (2 c-sections for free), affordable clothes in many places, free school holiday play scheme in my area, free summer entertainment, film clubs every week for £2 per kid free for adults, free dentistry, free medicine, my local hairdresser cuts kids hair for free when i go, free swimming at local pool...

kids go round in nice buggies, car seats, warm coats that are either reasonable to buy or parents can get them from nct etc at bargainous prices - i think that shows community values and recycling

restaurants are now good - changing mats, high chairs, menus etc that some other countries just dont even try to do - in our town there are kids in coffee shops everywhere made more than welcome

im prob off the drift now!

I have a problem with people talking about "broken britain" as they tend to (IME) believe that the 40's/50's was the golden age and perfect. In many many ways we are better off now, no it's not perfect. But I'd say that overall Britain nowadays is not only an improvement on how it has been, but on other countries too.

I don't want the 40's and 50's back. I just want to go out and not hear the 'F' word directed at small children and shops staff! I just want nice behaviour in public! I don't want to walk past people and feel scared!

Probably being too idealistic!

Riven - I'm sorry - I shouldn't comment on situations I don't understand but at least on MN I can get appreciate what other people have to live with. - don't mean to sound condescending.

Me too 2old, but I still believe the good outweighs the bad.

There's def lots of positives but the bad is really bad (baby p etc).

If you compare Britain to a class of 30 school children.....If you have a few 'difficult' children (these can be any children who don't hear the word 'no' at home) the teacher can keep control and do her job. But once it's 5 or 6, all you see are the difficult ones and the good behaviour and/or needs of all the others is ignored.

This is what is happening here. A few spoil it for the rest of us!

Isn't that always the way? Doesn't make Britain broken though

Ooh I see, Dp sent me over here but am asuming its the whole misbehaving kids in class things that prompted it?

Somekidsmisbehave becuase they want to,but even then theres a reaosn in most cases-home life,trauma of some kind (not alwys preventable, we're having issues atm with a child whose mum died suddenly,am not bitch enough to kick off), misdiagnosed SN,morecommonly IME (see my thread in SN) under resourced SN in MS.....I'd love to rebuild the entire system educationally,far more options out there than peoplecan actually access (mixed placements forexample) but as long asMSfail;ure is a prequisite to get needier children a aplce in specialist ed there will be problems with behaviour in class.

My son is exactly the one nobody wants in class,without bringing him home to HE (woudln't work) there's nothing I can do.

Also worth noting that etachers don't stand a chancewith SEN ?SN ?otherwise challenging kids atm. My course leader at Uni told us that he lectures in SEN on teacher training and does a half day,most students don't turn in as it is seen as largely unwanted info. tackle that attitude and teahers may be able to better manage the class they have.

Do-was that it? Or is tehre summat else?

Peachy.........over here..