Julie and Jonathan Myerson personify the worst generation in history

Edward

I've blogged extensively about the odious Myerson woman:

http://rotwatch.blogspot.com/

Fergus Pickering

Ah well, Rod. I was born 1n 1945. have a wife, the only one I have ever had, and two grown-up children who are still, on and off, living in the house. Neither of them does drugs though they both do alcohol, sometimes to a disproportiate amount. As we did and didn't. I don't go on holidays much (don't care for foreigners and foreign parts). We do have a car and computers and tellies and stuff like that. To what do Iascribe our long and blameless life? It is VOTING TORY that does it. The Myersons voted for blair and Brown. Good God what can you expect? You are an anarchist, or so I have read. Think of Boris and VOTE TORY. You won't regret it.

Craig, Liverpool

Great article.

Amanda Craig

Rubbish, Mr. Liddle - you speak for yourself. The Myersons were always famously wacky, even to people who knew them well. Most couples in their late 40s have remained married to the same person. We did not get the full student grants that those in their 50s enjoyed, emerged from university into a deep recession and worked our socks off to pay the mortgage. Furthermore, it's parents of the Myersons' generation who are most appalled at what they've done to their family - precisely because those in the media could all have eviscerated the temporary flaws in their children for cash, and chose not to.

Matt

I'm sure I'm not the first to make this joke, but now Mummy Myerson has been outed as the author of the Guardian's Living With Teenagers column, perhaps The Spectator could see its way to offering young Jake a Living With Fuckwits column.

PS I think the stencil mentioned in the article related to some graffiti that Myerson Jnr was allegedly responsible for in the local area.

Neil

Rod - I think even you would have difficulty living with a son who had punched you over the head so hard that it perforated your ear-drum.

Kate Milone

That's a rum do, coming from you.

Ben Philips

Blimey Rod - what a mea culpa in that last para. Have you spotted the bitter irony that it could pass for a leader in the Daily Mail?! Round and round we go...

I do agree with you, but what are your generation going to do about it?

Steve.W

I too think the Myersons are awful. I also think these things run in families so have noted what Neil said at 12.07pm.

So the bit I find odd is the Rod Liddle comment - “the vile Helen Weathers of the Daily Mail”.

Helen Weathers has also interview Chris Whitehouse the son of Mary Whitehouse. Whitehouse jnr fell out with his mum because she found out he smoked dope – read all about about here - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1022334/My-mother-snob-says-Mary-Whitehouses-son.html

So it seems this is what Weathers does to fill the day,reports on dysfunctional families. Nobody gets hurt and no bank is broken. Problem?

Paulme

What do you mean by "further to the left than a soup spoon"? A soup spoon's on the far right.

David Short

Amanda Craig is a middle class novelist writing books that sell in their thousands to middle class liberals and contributor to liberal nationals so she obviously took umbrage to Liddle's excellent piece.

But she is wrong to say all children of the 50s got full grants. Only poor working class kids did.

But you wouldn't expect a middle class novelist who writes for liberals to know this.

David Short

Hell, I left the gas ring on the other night, and I'm in my 50s.

Should I be kicked out?

I have a friend who had a much more problematic teenage son, who did far, far worse than this boy, but he and his wife didn't kick him out.

They struggled through and now he's fine.

David Short

Paulme, hey, there's posh!

perrypaul

Blimey!
Is this an audition for the next series of 'Grumpy Old Men'?

David Short

'Blimey'?

BS

Absolutely spot on.

bill

"This is the generation which has managed to spend the hard-earned cash built up over years by its parents and also has busied itself spending any possible inheritance to its children....spending until all the money was gone" I was born in 1960 and so were lots of people I know and these absurd assertions are not true. Why does the Spectator publish such stupid crass inane twaddle? I regret accidentally reading this utter rubbish and will be more careful to avoid this idiot website in future...god help you, you thickie morons

David

Are you sure the Sixties generation is the most feckless?

My family's grandparents born in the 1930's are equally adept at aquiring legacies , spending their own dosh like water & contributing nowt to their grandchildren.

Which may be fair enough but it was not invented by the Sixties kids who at least produced decent music unlike middle class types in their seventies who are in my experience, vile.

Alex Lockyear

Tonight I know that many of you, like me, will spend their entire Friday evening and Saturday morning glued to the goggle box's Comic Relief extravaganza.

I LAUGH OUT LOUD when I see the well-worked routines of some of our most talented newsreaders and soap stars.

I WEEP BUCKETS when I watch Richard Curtis and the like make free with the poor and terminally ill in Africa.

And just like Christmas the build-up is often nearly as good as the event itself !!

Is the internet speculation true, for example, that on tonight's show the TV bigwigs plan to reunite the three original 'Basil Brush Show' presenters - 'Mr Rodney' (Bewes), 'Mr Derek' (Fowlds) and 'Mr Roy' (North) - in a comedy sketch featuring the new glove puppet ?

Unlike Christmas, unfortunately, Comic Relief doesn't happen every year !

Anyway, it just occurred to me that in the bit on the show where they talk about our own problems in dear old Blighty (the M25 needs sorting out for sure), wouldn't it be right and proper if they gave some quality time to this Skunk pandemic that Julie Myerson and her hubby have been warning us about in the book (OUT NOW!) called THE LOST CHILD ?

I don't know what Julie's availability is like this evening but if she’s got a 'window' – why can’t Terry Wogan interview The Lost Child authoress herself on the BBC's Comic Relief show tonight ?

It’s for a good cause, after all – just like Comic Relief !

I don't think Mr Wogan made it onto Julie's pre-publication interview round at the BBC (so that would be good for Myerson 'completists' like myself), and it might help Julie find this lost child that she mentioned.

Bill Corr

Is there to be an unending flow of letters on the theme of "My son/daughter was FAR more of a worry than young Jake but we somehow struggled through with him/her and emerged triumphant at the end" or am I expecting too much or little of Spekkie readers?

Is there a prize offered for the most dramatic teenage son/daughter horror story?

Alexandra Pinsdorf

BRAVO! I'm over here in NY and don't know the actual story of Julie and Jonathon, but you've vindicated what I've thought for years after witnessing the same blindly arrogant selfishness over here...Circa 1968 the "adults" capitulated to the children and they've never gotten over the sense of their own self-importance since. It's a tragedy; they know not what they've become, and they know not what they've spawned.

J

I am on the left, but there is nothing worse than those on the left who turn their noses up at values, ethics, and beliefs that exist to protect each other from each other. They hate them because they see them as "oppressive" or "mainstream" or "right wing". Utter tosh. You can still be left wing and believe in strong morals and ethics.

Heike

I missed you Rod. Where were you?

M. Hristov

The phrase "clogs to clogs in three generations" is not a 1960s phrase.

The Myersons are very lucky because they are part of the media elite, along with Rod Liddle.

It is no wonder that Liddle thinks that his generation are entirely spoilt because those in the media are. They have no real accountability and do what they like.

In other fields of life the old assurance of a four bedroom house, car and happy family life, with time to spare for the family, has just disappeared into a horrendous nightmare of ceaseless work and fear of redundancy. Topped off with vicious New Labour and/or neo-liberal antipathy. Teachers and High Street Solicitors have come to this pass already and many other "professions" will follows.

I can hear and read the laughs already for everbody knows that teachers are work shy socialist yobs and High Street Solicitors are greedy amoral jerks.They know this because the media tells them.

A. MacAulay

"I have a friend who had a much more problematic teenage son, who did far, far worse than this boy, but he and his wife didn't kick him out."

They struggled through and now he's fine.

Interesting, David Short, I didn't know you knew my parents. And I was born in the early fifties!

Kenneth Perry

Myerson! Fancy having to live with a name like that. Reminds me of Dickens' Veneerings & I do regard Rod as My Mutual Friend.

Alidė Kohlhaas

Those born in the 50s and 60s are all that Rod has made them out to be, but what is worse, their offstpring are a collective of sociopaths, who feel such entitlement that it boggles the mind. As for the Myersons washing their dirty linen in public, this is nothing in comparison to what the generation now growing up will do to get attention. Flitter, Flitter, Flitter!

David Short

Mr McAulay. I think I did far, far worse than this boy also and I too was born in the 50s.

But this son of a friend of mine did so much more. I wouldn't go into detail here because it's not fair on the kid. My name's not Myerson...

Mark Adrian Solomon

"both are New Labour...When it does bother them, they are less consensual, caring and libertarian. When it bothers them, they turn into fascists."

And why does that seem to surprise you Rod? It was ever thus... The Fascists and the Nazis (full name 'National Socialists') were both movements that sprang up from the Left, not the Right, as working class rivals to the Communists against the old order of Liberals and Conservatives. The Left (in shame) has been very clever at trying to escape responsibility for almost all modern totalitarian dictatorships but the fundamental truth remains - like those people who say 'I'm an honest person' whose cheques are always mysteriously delayed in the post, those who spend all their political time claiming they are 'caring' 'consensual' and 'progressive' are pretty much usually the direct opposite - intolerant short-fused and selfish.

This eternal truth is part of what makes me a Conservative.

Richard Forbes-Robertson

Magnificent Liddle on top form!
B the way I was born in 1951 and my children are OK

Malcolm

The article turns to rubbish in the last couple of paragraphs, of course. Clearly Liddle has not actually read the extensive coverage of this miserable affair, but it is abundantly obvious that Jake is not an addict or indeed anywhere near as loony as his parents. And what has turned them loony is imported US claptrap on the supposed evils of the dreaded skunkweed.

Liddle makes the rather inane comment "thats why we have controls..." No Mr Liddle you do not. In Amsterdam they have controls, they keep the cannabis in shops to which the under 18s are not admitted. They do not do what the UK does with alcohol and allow every other shop, sandwich bar, post office, supermarket and God knows what else sell the stuff.

Why did you let yourself descend into Mel Philips rant ?

annie

I can't believe how wrong you are Rod. I am experiencing the same problems with my once lovely daughter. When you have been dragged across the bedroom by your hair you tend to rethink a relationship. My take FULL responsibility for my daughter's behaviour and have begged for help only to hear social workers say that violence to your mother and f-ing in front of yout six year old brother is 'growing pains', throwing away life's opportunity simply rebellion. I was born in 1961 and grew up poor ( didn't realise it at the time) , I'm not divorced , live modestly . If you have children pray to your god that this doesn't happen to your children. The relentless abuse can challenge anyone's sanity. My daugter left home to hang out with an under parented public school boy. Since when is domestic violence acceptable ? I shouldn't have to live in fear of attack. Come back Catherine when you have grwon up

Matt

"Who's that you're writing about there, Julie?"

"My, er, son."

Boom, boom.

John Thomas

J (13/3, 3:42)- you say "You can still be left wing and believe in strong morals and ethics" - no doubt this is theoretically true, but in practice very rare. Ethics and morals don't normally come from the (in fact materialist) wordview that most leftists hold; ethics and morals in origin come from a Judeo-Christian worldview that believes in rules, rights & wrongs, discipline, self-control - all the things left-wing people sneer at(vide Radio 4 "comedy" programmes). I would suggest that the kind of non-values-free leftists you refer to are actually left-wing plus something, eg. left-wing Catholics, middle class Liberal Jews, etc.

David

"Drugs make people behave badly; it really is as simple as that."

Which drugs? Alcohol maybe, but have you ever seen ecstasy users or skunk smokers on the rampage?

Perhaps it is a generational thing. Older people don't seem to understand that their drugs of choice (alcohol and nicotine) are more dangerous than the drugs of choice of the younger generation. Criminalising people for making more sensible choices than you did is plain silly.

Tamara

About five years ago the horrid Myerson woman wrote a column in the Timex 2 section all about how difficult her teenage children were, and from what she described they truly were vicious little buggers. However, she said nothing about trying to discipline the little blighters. Five years ago her children were still quite young. I felt very strongly about this as she was trying to put all teenagers in the same pot implying every teenager in the land was like hers so I wrote her an e-mail via the Times. My children (two girls) were 14 and 16 at the time and were (and still are) delightful and a joy to be with. I tried to point out certain elementary things to her about child rearing, but I strongly suspect my e-mail was discarded in the Delete Box. Well, she is now paying for it as she has become one of the most hated women in Britain! Oh revenge...

Tamara

Tamara

Wohwoh Julie

Have you read the book, then, Rod? If you have, and, of course, the rest of us haven't, we can't really challenge your assessment of it. If you haven't, how come you know so much about the "charge sheet" and the Myersons' parenting abilities? Why do you treat Jake's opinion of his parents as if it came from the mouth of God, whilst completely rubbishing their views about him? Why do you condemn the Myersons for learning from experience -- should everyone stick to the views of child-rearing they had at the time their children were born? Aren't you allowed to change your opinion over the course of 20 years? And why on earth do you try to castigate the Myersons for the sins of others born in the 60s? Have the Myersons personally squandered the unprecedented wealth they (supposedly) inherited? And what if Myersons Snr had regularly beaten Myerson Jnr, sent him to school without breakfast, called him an idiot as a matter of course, locked him up in a cupboard ... would the charge sheet according to Rod Liddle read: a clip round the ear, a low-calorie diet, a realistic assessment of his abilities, a bit of time out? And would the boy who complained of this treatment be described as a "fascist"? I think you're just envious of Julie's success as a writer.

dangerman

I am a 70-year-old pothead who leaves taps running & my children have grown up to be are suit-wearing conformists. Where did I go wrong?