You’ve managed to be very curmudgeonly while I was away yesterday. Well done i quite like the W’rose green tokens ... the choice of charities usually includes at least one that I know from my work provides real help and support to disabled/disadvantaged/vulnerable children and/or struggling families ... often charities that I turned to in my job when seeking support for cases that didn’t quite meet LA criteria in these days of austerity. Very often the name and description of the organisation doesn’t show the real picture of the valuable work they do ... just saying
Excellent comment DovefromAbove. I saw one of our local supermarkets was supporting the Men in Sheds project, a scheme which provides a chance for middle aged and elderly men to find friendship and self worth. I saw in the press that they have recently undertaken to make brightly coloured benches for school playgrounds as part of the ‘bench buddy’ scheme. A child with no one to play with sits on the bench and others invite him/her to join their group. The scheme is introduced by sensitively talking to the children about friendship and loneliness so no stigma is attached.
Now isn’t that heart warming? You’d have to be very curmudgeonly not to find merit in that.
The best way to attract a member of staff in a shop is to walk out of the door with chosen item,😀
Does anyone know how much is donated for one of those tokens, ours in local Tesco are good, disabled riding on the Moor and Eden project children’s activities of which are brilliant, those young people go to extreme lengths to entertain the kids in the holidays. I really do admire their enthusiasm.
Hostafan, I do know what that MP gets on the side! He’s our MP as well😇 however, I do like him and have written to him on a few occasions, he does reply, (or someone does)
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
There is another way of viewing those good old days, palaisglide, and it is not an era I want to return to.
A clip round the ear from the local bobby did nothing to deter mass violence from mods and rockers in the early 60s or protection rackets in inner cities. Do we want to return to the times when police manufactured evidence because they “knew” the arrested person was guilty, a time when the judiciary only reflected one stratum of society, a time of gross miscarriages of justice such as those inflicted on the Guildford or Birmingham bombers or Derek Bentley? Who wants back the days when beating up gays was almost a national sport, when overt racism was tolerated, when women were denied access to a full place in society because of gender?
When you watch television humour and sitcoms from the 1960s and 70s don’t you just cringe with embarrassment? Derogatory terms were commonplace and if you raised an objection you were belittled for having no sense of humour. They’re only words, they do no harm. Tell that to the disabled and the marginalised who were on the receiving end of just bitter jibes. I’ll take a PC world if it gives less offence.
Health and safety regulations might seem irksome but who remembers the national scandal of deaths and injuries on our building sites in the 1960s and 1970s? The havoc and injuries caused by unregulated control of fireworks, the deaths from gas and electrical appliances fitted by the incompetent and unqualified? Anybody in favour of abandoning drink drive regulations or making the wearing of seat belts optional?
On balance, I’ll take today’s restrictions for a safer, fairer society.
Picidae, One question, Why is this needed in an enlightened age (or so they say) when it was not something needed when I was at school? Could the answer be that we did not have all the modern gadgets that keep children's heads down so much so they walk into lamp posts. Boys played games in and out of school together which formed bonds often lasting for life, the weakest being looked after by the strong. the girls played skips had all kinds of singing and nursery rhyme games with the same affect, all were joined in. Of course some bullying went on but not by creeps on phones unseen and cowardly as they can say things they would never say to a persons face, our bullying was in your face and could be handled as it was. You cannot undo what is done although I would like to see all devices apart from calculators (what ever happened to the times tables) handed in at the school gate and handed back as they leave for home. The result they would talk to each other not text the person sat next to them who they would not recognise without a picture on the phone. Forget PC get the children playing with each other in contact games, face to face interaction and personal contacts instead of faceless IT, Girls Hockey was one of the toughest games I saw and the smallest had their place in it. Let's get real again. Frank.
With most of what you’ve said in your second post, Frank, I will largely agree. This addiction to social media is something that concerns me and I would like to see children more active and interactive.
It is an unwelcome trade-off for the massive benefits brought to the modern world by computing. And on line sexual exploitation is a monstrous horror. We are where we are: imagine today’s world without computing - prices would soar, standards of living would plummet.
Just one last little thought. As a child I was often chastised for having my nose in comics - a concern of those times was that children would never graduate to ‘proper’ literature. Well I like to think I am now well read and literate. I just wonder if our fears that current children will be social isolates in adulthood will be borne out.
Well said Picidae. I don't want to go back to those old days. I remember one family on our council estate where the children were teased about poor clothing but at least they were clean and well behaved whereas another family on the same green were thieves, bullies, dirty and rude and no-one said a word because they daren't - except my mum, of course. But then she was a district nurse who became a health visitor before going on to greater things and was used to idiots and afraid of nobody.
Society breaks down when parents don't know how, or don't bother, to train ther children to be sociable and exercise their responsibility to be polite, friendly, helpful etc. I don't want to go back to the days when a clip round the ear or a good hiding were acceptable. The Education department has had to say officially that teachers cannot be expected to potty train 4 year olds!
If children spend all their time on social media it's because their parents have been unable or unwilling to find more stimulating activities - youth clubs, sports, hobbies - and that's a side effect of not having communal meeting halls and staff to maintain them and volunteers with time and resources to run them. They don't need army discipline, especially that steeped in 50's and 60's traditions of sexism and dicrimnation. That's been shown to be appalling too, especially to the more vulnerable recruits and women.
Education and social suport are far more effective means of raising responsible, functioning citizens at all elvels of society. There are poor kids who need a leg up and rich kids who need to learn about the common weal.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
I see that the accused Gatwick couple have been released without charge yet their photos have been plastered all over the Sunday papers.
Well - what can possibly go wrong with that eh? I wonder how quickly they'll get a glazier to replace their windows every time several bricks go through them... Not defending them if they'te guilty, or defending those who dish out their warped sense of justice, but I'll just say - does everyone remember that hideous case of the landlord accused of that girl's murder a few years ago? Christopher Jeffries. I'd agree with plenty of what Picidae and Obelixx have said too. Recently someone moaned to me about getting a flat roof repaired because the guy wanted to put scaffolding up. 'Why can't they just use a ladder, like in the old days?' she said. 'Probably because it isn't safe' I said, and then held my tongue. My stock answer when anyone says 'that's how they used to do it in the old days' is - 'Ah the good old days - when we also used to bait bears and have freak shows where people turned up to laugh at people less fortunate than ourselves'. I don't think that would have gone down well.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Posts
Now isn’t that heart warming? You’d have to be very curmudgeonly not to find merit in that.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Does anyone know how much is donated for one of those tokens, ours in local Tesco are good, disabled riding on the Moor and Eden project children’s activities of which are brilliant, those young people go to extreme lengths to entertain the kids in the holidays. I really do admire their enthusiasm.
Hostafan, I do know what that MP gets on the side! He’s our MP as well😇
however, I do like him and have written to him on a few occasions, he does reply, (or someone does)
A clip round the ear from the local bobby did nothing to deter mass violence from mods and rockers in the early 60s or protection rackets in inner cities. Do we want to return to the times when police manufactured evidence because they “knew” the arrested person was guilty, a time when the judiciary only reflected one stratum of society, a time of gross miscarriages of justice such as those inflicted on the Guildford or Birmingham bombers or Derek Bentley? Who wants back the days when beating up gays was almost a national sport, when overt racism was tolerated, when women were denied access to a full place in society because of gender?
When you watch television humour and sitcoms from the 1960s and 70s don’t you just cringe with embarrassment? Derogatory terms were commonplace and if you raised an objection you were belittled for having no sense of humour. They’re only words, they do no harm. Tell that to the disabled and the marginalised who were on the receiving end of just bitter jibes. I’ll take a PC world if it gives less offence.
Health and safety regulations might seem irksome but who remembers the national scandal of deaths and injuries on our building sites in the 1960s and 1970s? The havoc and injuries caused by unregulated control of fireworks, the deaths from gas and electrical appliances fitted by the incompetent and unqualified? Anybody in favour of abandoning drink drive regulations or making the wearing of seat belts optional?
On balance, I’ll take today’s restrictions for a safer, fairer society.
Could the answer be that we did not have all the modern gadgets that keep children's heads down so much so they walk into lamp posts.
Boys played games in and out of school together which formed bonds often lasting for life, the weakest being looked after by the strong. the girls played skips had all kinds of singing and nursery rhyme games with the same affect, all were joined in.
Of course some bullying went on but not by creeps on phones unseen and cowardly as they can say things they would never say to a persons face, our bullying was in your face and could be handled as it was.
You cannot undo what is done although I would like to see all devices apart from calculators (what ever happened to the times tables) handed in at the school gate and handed back as they leave for home. The result they would talk to each other not text the person sat next to them who they would not recognise without a picture on the phone.
Forget PC get the children playing with each other in contact games, face to face interaction and personal contacts instead of faceless IT, Girls Hockey was one of the toughest games I saw and the smallest had their place in it.
Let's get real again.
Frank.
It is an unwelcome trade-off for the massive benefits brought to the modern world by computing. And on line sexual exploitation is a monstrous horror. We are where we are: imagine today’s world without computing - prices would soar, standards of living would plummet.
Just one last little thought. As a child I was often chastised for having my nose in comics - a concern of those times was that children would never graduate to ‘proper’ literature. Well I like to think I am now well read and literate. I just wonder if our fears that current children will be social isolates in adulthood will be borne out.
Society breaks down when parents don't know how, or don't bother, to train ther children to be sociable and exercise their responsibility to be polite, friendly, helpful etc. I don't want to go back to the days when a clip round the ear or a good hiding were acceptable. The Education department has had to say officially that teachers cannot be expected to potty train 4 year olds!
If children spend all their time on social media it's because their parents have been unable or unwilling to find more stimulating activities - youth clubs, sports, hobbies - and that's a side effect of not having communal meeting halls and staff to maintain them and volunteers with time and resources to run them. They don't need army discipline, especially that steeped in 50's and 60's traditions of sexism and dicrimnation. That's been shown to be appalling too, especially to the more vulnerable recruits and women.
Education and social suport are far more effective means of raising responsible, functioning citizens at all elvels of society. There are poor kids who need a leg up and rich kids who need to learn about the common weal.
I wonder how quickly they'll get a glazier to replace their windows every time several bricks go through them...
Not defending them if they'te guilty, or defending those who dish out their warped sense of justice, but I'll just say - does everyone remember that hideous case of the landlord accused of that girl's murder a few years ago? Christopher Jeffries.
I'd agree with plenty of what Picidae and Obelixx have said too.
Recently someone moaned to me about getting a flat roof repaired because the guy wanted to put scaffolding up. 'Why can't they just use a ladder, like in the old days?' she said. 'Probably because it isn't safe' I said, and then held my tongue.
My stock answer when anyone says 'that's how they used to do it in the old days' is - 'Ah the good old days - when we also used to bait bears and have freak shows where people turned up to laugh at people less fortunate than ourselves'.
I don't think that would have gone down well.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...