Three women showed me how bad things have got

Garry Lavin

Marvellous Bryan - touches me as my 11 yr old son was ignored at his first primary school as the teachers sat him with badly behaved pupils to maintain class control, so I managed to get him in another school, in another authority who are trying to repair the damage but I fear for the future. He still struggles and although very articulate and interested in everything, could be marred for life.

And Bryan, in 1973 you made a short film about Elton John on tour - (sorry - I am seen on stage as a student) - are you going to put it on Youtube?
www.youtube.com/garrylavin

Jean Helm

Thank God I am not going mad! By chance I came upon this artical and then realised it was by actor/director Bryan Forbes. From the age of 5yrs. I was a film buff(that was during the 2nd world war,when I would accompany my mother to the cinema.Later I would copy her socialist views. For amany many years I have found both film and poloitics difficult to bear.Films since the 70s have become tedious and the parade of Labour careerist clones and arrogant mantra has sickened me.No longer do we see characters and eccentrics on our screens, whether from the arts or politics. instead we are served a diet of hard-faced clever jo's. Any other form of human life is classed as lacking confidence and not 'sexy'. And of couse there is the ageism problem and the accompanying lack of experience and wisdom, which hopefully only comes with age! How can anything grow in this stagnant pond.

Austin Barry

The ignition point is close, very close. How good it would be to see the preposterous Brown and his venal and corrupt crew of self-serving mediocrities led from Downing Street to howls of execration from we, the people.

Victor Smith

Well said!!
The exremely bad state of this Country has not simply befallen us - it has been deliberatley 'achieved' by New Labour buffoons and EU management!

Hopefully, it will not get any worse - but for the hell of me I cannot help but think they are trying extremely hard to do so!

For goodness sake - let's get the hell rid of them before we perish!

Kim Hammill

Quite Right! And what about the other poor lady GP who was "reported" for refusing to have a rude, ill-mannered, potentially violetn and aggressive woman resiter as a patient (she was overhead being rude to a nurse at the surgery) and was struck off, given some pathetic "compensation" after years of medical school and service in the NHS, and may, if she promises to be a very, very good girl, she may be allowed to practice (under supervision). This, too reflects the true nature and Stalinist legacy of the ghastly Blair, Brown and the rest of the wholly-despicable shower!

Mr Green

Phew! Well put.

Old Man

Instead of bleating, how about a campaign to treat all people equally?

When I was about to retire, Equitable Life wrote to me a very simple letter.

It said.

We have less money than we thought. We will have to take one third of your pension fund. Sorry about that. Yours sincerely etc.

Public sector pension schemes are billions in deficit. So why don’t we insist that all public sector workers be treated in exactly the same way as people like me – the wealth creators.

It would be equitable (no pun intended) and save the tax-payer billions. It’s a win-win if there ever was one.

Jan

Surely the authors of many of our fortunes honestly believe that their children are brighter than those of hoi poloi. How is it possible for them to hold views that all children are born equal in intelligence? Or could it be hypocrisy, telling the rest of us that our children (and grandchildren) truly don't need a proper education, since only the chosen ones are worthy.

Minnie Ovens

Oh my! I wish I could say that as well as Mr Forbes.
Certainly no lack of talent there.

Sarah Alexander Warne

Fantastic, I really enjoyed reading your article. I am sure so many people feel this way - what has happened, how did we become so lethargic, almost anaesthetized into acceptance of so much that is unacceptable. Regarding literacy in schools for one, I weep - I read letters all the time in the Guardian and Independent, can no one spell or use correct grammar these days? - the children's television programmes for the very young are numbingly mindless and non creative - then or course there is the environment, I weep again for my grandchildren's future, for the future of our planet - for the lies and deceipt that have accelerated the decline of so much by so few over the last twenty years, particularly the corrupt and inept leaders of late. Injustice appears to be rife wherever one looks.
Thank you for your article.
An old and trusty Speccie reader

paul gilboy

its very sad to read a great englishman assess how his nation has changed in his own lifetime.
Ideas can be very persuasive and corrupting, there are people who are responsible for corrupting us, but we have gone along and corrupted ourselves

colin

Ignition of the"smouldering majority" is taking too long.They need a leader with a plan of action.How about you?If we wait another year for an election to remove this evil crowd ,how much more damage will they inflict on us1

Stephen Green

Thank you Bryan.
I am retired and live in France.
I was recently asked what I did all day and my immediate reply was
"I WEEP FOR ENGLAND"

Stephen Green

Could someone who has access to Buckingham Palace knock on their front door and ask the footman to take a message to Elizabeth Windsor :-
" Do us a favour love and dissolve Parliament = Permanently!

A. MacAulay

Oh, come on! Twas ever thus. Parliament, whoevers, has always been "a parcel rogues in the nation".

New Labour clearly understood that Major's disaster in installments was caused by inadequate media control. No "Minister sucks whore's toes" (at the time I thought; let the punishment fit the crime) headlines with Alistair Campbell in charge. That they're coming apart at the seams now is shown by their inability to cow or catch moles more than any ability of the press to reveal anything. And that these years have been spent, under cover of medial night in shabby, dreary filching shouldn't surprise us. Shame on H.M. Opposition is more to the point!

Gary Shaw

Thank you for this excellent article. It depicts perfectly how modern Britain has become unrecognisable from the nation we were once so proud of and which once stood for so much that was worthy.