An age of barbarism

Hysteria

Thanks Melanie - another good analysis of one of the fundamental ills of our country.

You say it is too late...You are right in that "we are where we are", but surely there is something we can do?

Not overnight perhaps - but we can't just give up.

Philip Owen

Outstanding, and angry - as it should be. I hope it will be finding its way into newsprint, for a wider audience.

Frank P

Haven't missed a word of it for the entire couple of decades and have disagreed with hardly a single idea behind the words: a true reflection of what has been evolving. You speak for (almost) everyone that has been battling away and trying to hold the line against all the things you delineate above and are frustrated by events and the docility of the general populace in the face of it. But how do we harness the truth of it into positive action? I for one am not sure that the next election will begin the long march back to sanity, regardless of whether the deluded incumbent of No.10 is displaced by the smoothie who lusts after the address (and I'm talking Cameron not Mandelson; though the latter is by no means an impossibility).

It is truly depressing; but as you have said so often yourself Melanie, "Never give up!" A grievously damaged and almost collapsed culture is an opportunity for renewal. Keep your powder dry for when the debris finally gets sucked into the fan. Your blog is now solidly transatlantic and you have a great audience in Australasia; despite the QRN and QRM (to use the International comms. jargon) of the jammers on this blog, your words are a beacon of hope for so many and must remain so.

Never despair. It is understandable that after a few days in The Land of The Free (despite its recent bizarre political aberration) you should feel depressed at the prospect of immersing yourself back in Dystopia at the one end of the spectrum and the baleful dreams of Utopia of the pseudo intelligentsia at the other. There are acres of fertile and arable land between. Till away and keep sowing the seeds. My watering can is getting rusty. But even some of the hostile crap that is splattered across your blog will mulch down into fertiliser if you keep the plough moving. The malign foolishness of your detractors is predictable and is its own denunciation.

Not Even Likely

Yes, you are correct. Expecting transitory "partners" to feel the same about someone else's child as the biological parent would, just really goes against human nature, and in fact, a lot of mammals feel the same way. Of course they don't. Raising a child is hard enough when you love them like your own kin. When they're not your own kin, they are just brats, highly annoying, loud, obnoxious and needy.

Worried, Windsor

The intelligentsia, or the female intelligentsia?

Is it not women's attitudes to sexuality, procreation, family structure, welfare policies, etc that has got us to this point?

Men have always behaved badly, given the opportunity. It's women who have changed.

I think maybe you started to say this, but then the argument became diffuse.

Alex Bensky

If Britain's progressives are anything like ours over in the US, your imprecations will fall on deaf ears. For all their talk about being for "the people," they actually regard people mostly as objects for carrying out their own ideology. The ideology trumps all and since ipso facto the ideas are correct, their failure must be attributed to something else; self-reflection is not these people's normal condition.

Too bad; the results are plain to see in any American inner city and the only reaction of this class seems to be to throw even more money at the problem.

Chris

Seriously, Melanie, however horrific an individual case is, it is still an individual case. It's patently obvious to everyone who is sane that this "truly dark age of barbarism" is constructed for target practice.

Sue

Briliant analysis Melanie, heartbreakingly true. Exactly what has happened in America as well.

God, in His mercy, always positions 'watchemen on the walls' to warn of coming destruction. Sadly, seldom do people listen.

You're right, it is too late now.
Now we reap the whirlwind.

raymond joseph douglas

On radio five,on victoria derby shires phone in show, I tried to put the very points you have talked about.I was shot down in flames,not only by derbyshire,but also by other phone in people.I conclude by this,that we are in a state of mass denial on this topic.We want to believe in the deception that we can enjoy hedonistic pleasure without the responsibilities of marriage.We want to believe we can abandon the mothers of our children,or their fathers,in order to chase "the love of our lives"!We want our collective cake,and eat it!We can't

David Raynes

Brilliant and accurate. This is worth rehttp://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article5133966.eceading in conjunction.

Jeremy Wilkinson

I, I, I etc. Many of the problems with to our fragmented society stem from solipsism - something Melanie and the 'progressive' intellegentsia share. Melanie, a late-comer to traditional morality (and still 'open-minded' on to abortion, torture, nukes not to mention that dissolver of the instituion of marriage, contraception (which she recommends) etc.)really should practice the virtue of humility. She might find that it enhances her ability to get her message across - esp. when it is (as it not infrequently is) a valuable one.

Pedro Erik

Brilliant, Melaine. But I feel that the progressive intelligentsia, unfortunately, will reach the peak when the advent of Messiah Obama. It is not enough ask how many dead children are needed. We need adopt again the Christian faith. It will be a long time until that.

Best,
Pedro Erik

Alcuin

I can do little but echo the words of Frank P. Never give up, Melanie. If the BBC, bless its heart, holds a special Moral Maze on this issue, I hope you are on it, and I hope you give them both barrels. But I fear I know what the reactions would be - yet more soft progressive soap. Only a catastrophe will shake these people from their smug hubris, and even this is not enough.

Margaret

I cannot stop being amazed by your honesty and hard-hitting analyses! Thank you for telling the unvarnished truth. A pity that the right people will not read or understand you.

Rob

Melanie, when you say progressives have bullied Britian into a "truly dark age of barbarism" you do yourself no favours.
Britain today has many faults i agree with you on, but in terms of British history it's probably the best. One hundred years ago Baby P was a common occurence as were children sweeping chimneys. Fifty years before that children were working 12 hour factory shifts.
The only real pro-family golden age in Britain was a short ten years after the creation of the welfare state. Before that violence, rape, child poverty, and infant mortality were taken as part and parcel of life. From this, and the fact we're living much longer too, it's hyperbolic to use such apocalyptic terms.

EC

Melanie, this is undeniable and very inconvenient truth!

Dehumanisation, evil and wickedness proceed apace but the scourge is not solely confined to our country. The post WW2 fad for cultural Marxism was launched upon the West by our enemies but the retreat of reason leading to the descent into anarchy is a cancer that is being enabled and enacted by the malign and credulous of our own!

Summon Hercules!

Norm

Sad but true Melanie.

Brain Brian

Using a terrible tragedy as a means to spout more self-congratulatory claptrap.

Dave

It's awful and terrile. But an "age of barberism"? Seriously?

Verity

Rob writes: "One hundred years ago Baby P was a common occurence as were children sweeping chimneys. Fifty years before that children were working 12 hour factory shifts." I would like a reference to Baby P being "a common occurence", please, as I have never read about such a thing before in novels of the time, nor in history books. Children working in mills and up chimneys were necessities of survival of the times. They were not events of sheer, brutal cruelty. Little by little, we pulled ourselves out of the situations you describe and willingly passed laws on child labour and required children to attend schools.

Another apologist, Chris, writes: " Seriously, Melanie, however horrific an individual case is, it is still an individual case." What about the kidnap of her own daughter by little Sharon Matthews's mother and her boyfriend, who hid her in a flat and had her tethered her the ceiling when the the conspirator went out so should couldn't escape, for "reward" money? These are the ones we know about. What about the horrifying brutality of children to children - as in, let's say, "happy slapping", allowed to run rife because if punished, some slag mother of a perpetrator would be down at the school in her pajamas screaming that her daughter was being victimised. We read daily about brutality that would have shocked people out of their minds 50 years ago.
A Jeremy Wilkinson, referring to Melanie, notes with lofty disapproval that she "really should practice humility as she might find it enhances her ability to get her message across -". And you became an editor when?

I believe Melanie Phillips has been getting her message across, as an international journalist and author for at least 15 years without your kind counsel.

It's unravelled. And it happened so quickly ... accelerating in the last decade, and so deliberately ...

A J Scott

It breaks one's heart. How is it these people have no sense of their responsibilities for succeeding generations? Planet of the Apes indeed.

Vision Aforethought

@Rob: Well, maybe, but back then, life was tough by default. Good behavior, common sense ethics and etiquette were luxuries of the well to do. Today, even the most hardened working classes live well: Enjoying Sky TV, a warm home and affordable food on the tax payer or (to be fair) a hard working spouse/partner. The values M so correctly highlights that have been stripped from our society have lead to a whole generation of thoughless 'animals?' who completely fail to comprehend their station.I am afraid, that if this is what a modern society surrounded by technology, solutions and opportunity comes to, then the situation today is far worse than back in the old days. We are selfish! It's that simple. Blame Facebook, celeb TV, Politically Correctness, reality TV, lack of moral leadership from the government (& a terrified Church), weak discipline at school - and even a soft military. Remember the Iran kidnapping debacle? We shall reap what we have sowed, so G-d help us.

Anthony

This is why this blog is my number one read every day and why Melanie Phillips is my number one journalist.

We wouldn't be here again and again if it wasn't for the ripping up of our traditional values.

Our ancestors may have got things wrong, yes, but they understood the essentials of what binds a family and a society together. But we were assured it was A Good Thing to smash the granite base of our society. And if you're like Melanie Phillips and dare to point out the dangers of this vandalism and where it will lead to, you'll get smashed even harder.

How we even begin to pick up the pieces, I have no idea. We have never been here before. Centuries and centuries of slowly altered tradition have been blown to bits within about 50 years. Nationhood? Bin it. The family? Bin it. They sometimes made you unhappy so listen to us and just bin the lot.

Come join the dysfunctional family of nations at the UN. Come join the dysfunctional family down the road.

And remember, don't judge any of them.

david skinner

Far be it for me to disagree with you Melanie but what are governments for but to govern and enact legislation that will either move us away from barbarism or towards it? There are those in the corridors of power, such Iris Robinson, MP, to name one, who work fearlessly for righteousness and Justice, whilst there are others like Evan Harris, who in any other age would at the very least be in the tower of London. One thing that we can certain of and that this whenever there is some awful occurrence such as this, the leaders in the land, both spiritual and temporal, will immediately blame the parents. The massive buck is passed speedily and swiftly into their hands.
The contribution that both Tony Blair or Rowan Williams have made toward the inner rot and decay of our society that murders over 200, 000 unborn babies a years makes the sins of individual parents infinitesimal by comparison.

Kerry

In Ausrtalia its the same Melanie, the Rudd government wants the term 'marriage' replaced with 'coupled relationship' and 'children' will be referred to as 'the product of a coupled relationship'. This is an attempt to satisfy the sodomites who regret that the term marriage cannot be used for their relationship.
It does look grim, even globally, but we have yet one hope-God! He has said, if his people will humble themselves and seek his face and pray, he will hear their cry and heal their land. I believe, inspite of the presence of evil, that the blame rests upon sleeping Christians. We have the numbers to turn the tide, but most of them are off their knees and caught up with the ways of the world. That silly American sitcom that many watch, with its off-colour humour is costing them more than they realise. Thanks for being such a true witness to the truth Melanie, I know you will be paying the price of such righteousness.

Pcollier

Agree in the larger sense but this sort of case comes up every so often regardless of the wider culture. It wouldn't be entirely out of place in Victorian England. Worked in SW in Hackney some time ago. Strange experience. Nothing in the organization worked but certainly all staff worked long hours. Police are typically very involved in cases like this so I am surprised they did not have a hand in the case. Social workers are not detectives. If the mother was manipulative it wouldn't be hard to pull the wool over most social worker's eyes. They are not rocket scientists. If they thought something was going on they would certainly do their best. The practice of placing children with family and family friends is pretty common out here. System is massively overstretched (and overused) as it is.

C Powell

Indeed - a trahison des clercs.

The biggest crime liberals have committed is to say that we must not be judgmental and to attack all moral standards other than doing what you want.

Utter tosh and dangerous, too: we cannot behave as civilized human beings unless we apply judgment; we cannot have a civilized society unless we apply judgment; we cannot provide sensible services or care to the vulnerable unless we apply judgment. And the result is a society where - at least in parts of it - there is a moral vacuum, where evil flourishes.

So we have a a society which refuses to criticise girls (and boys) who have sex when they are still children; girls who have children one after the other with different men; men who disappear as soon as the deed is done and abandon their girlfriends/wives and children; girls who think it OK to live like slatterns (drinking to excess, dressing like tarts, vomiting and generally behaving indecently and vulgarly in public); girls who think that having a baby entitles them to a flat and benefits; parents who refuse to take responsibility for their children; people who blame others or "society" for their own failings.

We should insist on personal responsibility, personal morality, decent living. We should talk about "good" and "evil" and "right" and "wrong". We should say that people have a choice and need to accept the consequences of their choices. We should be judgmental about appalling or even just bad behaviour. We should stop pretending that it's all about lifestyle choices and one lifestyle choice is much the same as another, when all the evidence shows that some choices are extremely damaging and harmful, especially for children.

If we don't, if we refuse to teach the difference between "right" and "wrong" or the concept of personal responsibility and what that means, it is little wonder if people behave without restraint, gratifying only their own desires (however repellent or disgusting) without any regard for anyone else.

I think that we should make clear that if you have a child you need to take responsibility for it and you shouldn't have one if you can't. The only benefit you should get is child benefit, payable to all mothers. We should stop now this nonsense whereby having a child on your own entitles you to free housing and a range of benefits. The families of such girls should take responsibility, the fathers should take responsibility and if neither of them are around or refuse to then we should have a system of foster families for the girls and their babies or, maybe, mother and baby homes, where there is a responsible adult who ensures that they learn that growing up is about more than having sex but entails responsibilities, for years and years. And if the girls don't want to do this then the babies should be adopted by those who will give them a loving home. But no more girls living on welfare at our expense with a succession of men wandering in and out of their lives and their childrens' lives. We permit this, subsidise it (unlike every other European country) - and then wonder why we have the problems associated with such a way of life. (Look at the dreadful Shannon Matthews case, look at the mother of the girl murdered in Goa.)

And it isn't about demonising single mothers. It's about making clear that you have a child only if you are prepared for the responsibility - financial, emotional and social -that it entails and that it is not a way of getting things (a home/an income of sorts) which others have to work for.

There will always be people for whom we as a community need to care for but our welfare system needs to be based on some level of judgment not just simple woolly-minded "compassion" for the "poor" (some of whome are poor only in the moral sense). It needs to reinforce the concept of personal responsibility not relieve people of the consequences of their actions so that people come to believe that they have no obligations, no duties, only "rights". That is what our welfare system fails to do because we are afraid to say these simple things because they might be unpalatable, because we are afraid to say - other than when an awful case like this comes to light - this is wrong.

Verity

Dave - "But an "age of barberism"?"

Wasn't that when they were cutting off people's beards in Russia? There was an awful lot of barberism going on, and not all of it good, frankly. Some faces are best left undisclosed.

Meanwhile, regarding the disintegration of Western civilisation, may I point to two words: Common Purpose.

Herbert Thornton

Horrifyingly true, Melanie - and not confined to Britain.

After pondering Melanie's comments, I suggest people also refer back to the posting by SAL (November 5th, 2008 6:47pm) in Melanie's blog 'Freedom now stands alone'. SAL drew attention to Antonio Gramsci's manifesto on how to subvert western societies from within.

Gramsci's proposals have had tremendous influence and have been horrifyingly successful - not just in Britain but in Canada.

It is interesting to compare Gramsci's aims with those of Mao Tse Tung's Cultural Revolution. Whether Mao was influenced by Gramsci I have no idea, but remarkably their aims were very similar. Both men so hated the society that they lived in that they wanted to utterly destroy it. What might follow, they cared little about, other than their own personal satisfaction in seeing it destroyed. But a comparison of the results shows that in Canada and China they had very different outcomes.

In Canada Prime Minister Trudeau introduced policies that amounted to Canada's equivalent of Mao's Cultural Revolution. They aimed to impose on Canada Trudeau's (and liberals') belief in moral relativism. Disastrously, Trudeau's Cultural Revolution has succeeded and has caused immense harm. It continues to inexorably subvert the best aspects of Canadian society, and not just in the nation's traditional institutions. The subversion now includes the limitation and suppression , by truly Orwellian Human Rights Commissions, of Canadians' supposed freedoms of conscience, religion, thought, belief, opinion and expression. The traditional family in Canada has not yet been has not been entirely destroyed, but it has been severely damaged and is growing steadily weaker.

In China on the other hand, Mao's Cultural Revolution has been largely discredited. The reason for this, I believe has been the immense strength of the Chinese family system. Fortunately for China family bonds are bonds are very strong indeed - unlike in the west where the bonds have become very weak and often ceased to exist at all.

The family system is the fundamental building block of every civilised society. But as in the case of any structure built of brick, the strength of the structure depends, ultimately, on the soundness of the bricks. When the bricks fail, the whole structure is destined to crumble. We are now seeing it slowly happening.

The west is in danger of reverting to barbarism. Indeed, in many ways it has already done so in the ways Melanie so eloquently describes. China's civilisation on the other hand is as strong as ever. We have a great deal to learn from China, but is anyone willing to listen?

Neil Saunders

Your best piece for a while, Melanie, and not a syllable with which any reasonable person could disagree.

What a tragedy that so many UNreasonable people - wedded to discredited dogmas - are now in positions of immense social and cultural influence!

Wilfred

You are marvellous, Melanie.

And a magnificent post from Frank P.

shocked

Well done Melanie. You saw it coming before everyone else. You're more brilliant than everyone else. Quite amazing.

Your analysis of the US political situation has been spot on as well. Congrats to the Spec for having someone who is so well attuned to the political sphere.

This person knows their stuff

Hugh

This willfull blindness and "official" tut-tutting is prevalent in the US, too. Why? Whilst the grove of academe can insulate itself with self-serving platitudes and amoral pandering quips, it is they who are largely at fault.No? Then what of all the "social study" programs and tenured chairs/Depts? What of the endless "expert " testimonials in court and@ the UN? The answer Melanie is to detach yourself from society by obtaining your "teaching cert."Then you would not be responsible...as they are not.No shame ,no morals , just poses...like politicians,eh wot! There is right or wrong and there is good and bad- just don't tell "them".

Bentley Wexford

Great article! We have a very similar situation here in the States, where, especially in academe, ideology reigns supreme and is often unchecked by caritas and empathy (think William Ayers and Ward Churchill). You mention a only few examples of the barbarism perpetuated on children but that kind of behavior is quite common. Only a fool would believe that you are speaking of isolated incidents.

An American

In socialist societies...everything is gray. There is no white or black...no right or wrong...no decent or indecent...no innocent or guilty.
Socialist goverments and the far-left liberal press have done a good job of brain-washing and intimidating people to go along with this madness...and in the end, innocent children suffer...but, hey, socialist dogma is more important than a mere child.

Verity

Vision Aforethought: Does " so G-d help us." mean God help us? Why not write God? God has been so written for over two thousand years. What is this coy "G-d"? If you are referring to God, then write God. Anglo-Saxon is a robust language. The word we employ in English is God.

Dear God! The pretentiousness!

Brian Foy

You wonderful brave woman. More and more of us will stand with you to resist the dishonest liberal lunatics who are determined to destroy western societies with their idiot policies.

Walter Moran

Lots of agreement here. How many of you - I'm speaking to those posting - have grabbed your local government representative by the shirtfront and gotten in his or her face, and told them plainly that these values are NOT acceptable - that you EXPECT to see change and that, since your vote has meaning, that you EXPECT this person to deal with the problem?
Has even ONE of you done this - whether in the UK, USA or in Canada, where I'm writing from?
Well? Because letters to Melanie here won't change a thing.
Well? What are you waiting for?

sebastian

"..the amoral and criminally self-regarding so-called ‘progressive’ intelligentsia, who have bullied, smeared, intimidated and manipulated Britain into a truly dark age of barbarism......particularly at the BBC", I think Melanie meant to add.

Conservative Cabbie

Rob

The progressive revolution certainly had it's day, in the sixties and seventies, the world needed progressivism. However, a revolution can be taken to far. The welfare state is fine if it catches the genuinly needy but in time it becomes an entitlement that suppresses personal ambition. Civil rights was an absolute necessity in the sixties but has today morphed into affirmative action that denies meritocracy and generates resentment.

We should be calling an end to the progressive movement, it's time to start focusing more on personal responsibilities and less on personal rights.

Geoff Miller

Is it any wonder that 250,000 people, myself included, leave the UK evry year?

Look back in Anger? - Horror more like.

To see the country of your birth disintegrating like this is horrifying. Dont believe that the headlines of the past week are aberations - there is much more that never gets reported.

The UK was on track until the Labour Governments of the 70's. Now unelected, and unrepresentative, liberals infest and influence every area of public life.

Add economic collapse to moral and social collapse and I think the next few years will be quite "interesting".

Emmet

Brain Brian and Chris, living as you no doubt do in some kind of middle class ivory tower, it's quite easy to believe that what Melanie is saying is only hysteria. Start living in the real world and leave your Brave New World fantasy behind. Try living in Peckham or Easterhouse for even a few days and then come back and talk of hysteria. Otherwise, shut up.

Dee Ranged

Melanie

I have but one word for this!

Brilliant, Brilliant, Brilliant!

Barackobama

Rather than get angry and despair about the latest societal monstrosity, conservatives should ask themselves this question: why, when the overwhelming majority believe in strong families and responsible individual behaviour free from state direction, conservatism seem to be losing? There are three principal reasons, and they lie within the conservative movement itself. One is that conservatives have wrongly associated themselves with free market individualism. The free market is a revolutionary, anti-family idea used to justify the legitimisation of abortion, drug use, pornography, sexual promiscuousness, every kind of personal irresponsibility including abandonment of marital responsibilities and even criminal behaviour. It is a false conservative God. You can't be coherently conservative and support the free market.
The second is that conservatives have allied themselves with anti-illectualism, now most prominently expressed by minority, bible-based Christian sects who have taken over the Republicans and are using defeat in 2008 as an excuse to reject intelligent consevative thought.
The third is believing that things would be so much better if only we had a conservative president, or prime minister, or government. This is the largest of all conservative illusions. Conservatives should stop wasting their time on elections, which many believe are fixed any way, and concentrate their energies at the level of the individual and the family, using example to change the world, not law or coercion which will only strengthen the state. It will always be morally-neutral, no matter who is in charge, and is wide open to being captured by opportunists from right, left and centre.

Frank P

Walter Moran

"Lots of agreement here. How many of you - I'm speaking to those posting - have grabbed your local government representative by the shirtfront and gotten in his or her face,"

Wally - and I use that in the familiar nominal sense in the nicest possible way, rather than in the descriptive sense: a neighbour of mine did that just recently and threw said official into a nearby wheelie bin after some bureaucratic lip from him.

Finished up being charged on four counts:

(1) Assault, causing actually bodily harm (loss of dignity)

(2) Criminal damage to said jobs-worth's shirt (a button popped).

(3) Obscene language likely to cause a breach of the peace (Described him as an officious little turd).

(4) Dumping a turd in a wheelie bin intended only for waste paper.

You obviously haven't visited Britain in recent years since the Gramscian Long March walked through the door of 10 Downing Street 11 or so years ago.

Maybe after a few years of Obamania in the USA and creeping Sharia, which has already erupted in Canada, you'll understand.

The British people are being disenfranchised by ceding legal powers to Europe; by local draconian laws involving suppression of free speech - and by a politicised police non-service that is unavailable when trouble erupts, as they are too busy acting as secret police for the government implementing "hate" laws and dancing to the tune of Yurrups Yuman Rights. There will be blood - but not until the food starts to run out! In the meantime Melanie will keep you in touch and believe me, her rage does seep through, in various ways, to the corridors of power. It would be ten times worse without her constant chivvying.

Frank P

Melanie

Forgive me for lowering the tone in my last comment, particularly as you tried to set a high standard with your depiction at the top (EC - help (again)! who painted it and what's the legend?); but I just wanted our transatlantic friends to know that our bawdy sense of humour is still extant, even if it's beginning to wear a bit thin.

phil

Melanie welcome back to what you do best .well what goes around comes around ,you may remember this is where you and I came in after I had seen a question time that you appeared on with TRACY EMMINS quite some time ago . I emailed you to ask why you were perceived as right wing particularly as I who consider myself as rather liberal absolutely coincided with what you had to say -The discussion was about a lady who decided not to send her child to school and after many attempts to deter her the law gave up and sentenced her .Some on the panel agreed with the mother as did some of the audience ,and the shock I felt prompted me to write to you and tell you to keep your chin up as many of us supported you

.Societies condemnation of wrong doers is so weak now that the values that I was brought up with seem to have disappeared -failure is not allowed in school,punishment is usually deferred ,whistle blowers reviled and silenced and I feel like a dinosaur .

I have semi joked with friends regarding football hooligans where I suggested putting them in stocks(protected)in the middle of the town that they have abused ,for humiliation - I know it will not happen but I would bet it would stop these idiots who consider "respect" is all .It is real respect that has gone missing along with compassion and care for others so if nothing else comes from your campaign at least I can renew my support for all you are trying to do .

Scott

Verity: Vision Aforethought: Does " so G-d help us." mean God help us? Why not write God? God has been so written for over two thousand years. What is this coy "G-d"? If you are referring to God, then write God. Anglo-Saxon is a robust language. The word we employ in English is God. Dear God! The pretentiousness!"

Dear God, what an empty vessel she continues to parade; the crass, insular stupidity of this woman continues to be mind-boggling.

Ask a religious Jew WHY God is G-d you ignorant, self-aggrandising wannabe.

Vision Aforethought

@Verity: I was (under fairly strict instruction) taught at (Jewish) school, never to write the full word - in English. I am also aware of far more strict laws with regards to the Hebrew equivalent. No pretense at all, it has been a force of habit since 1974. BTW, I tend to agree with all your postings - keep it up.
@Walter Moran: So true. Where do we start?

Leslie

Verity.

http://judaism.about.com/library/3_askrabbi_o/bl_simmons_g-d.htm

Neil Saunders

It's difficult to gauge the actual extent of the influence of organisations such as Common Purpose (referred to by Verity) since they strive so hard to conceal the nature and scale of their activities. (At the same time, very powerful organisations, such as the Evelyn Oldfield Institute (affiliated to Common Purpose), operate (with minimum coverage by the media or consequent public awareness) with generous sponsorship from both private business and central government.)

Such concealment, of course, makes (and is intended to make) socially conservative people appear as lunatic conspiracy theorists when invoking such organisations and speculating about their influence on society and public policy.

What is indisputable is the permeation of all of our major institutions by ideas derived from or otherwise congruent with those of cultural Marxism.

There certainly has been something like a "long march through the institutions", but it has happened covertly, beneath the radar of public debate or oversight.

It seems implausible to me that everyone who has assisted this almost imperceptible revolution was or is an avowed Marxist, or an explicit disciple of the Frankfurt School or Gramsci. My suspicion is that these culturally Marxist ideas have somehow seeped into the wider culture, and that many of those who hold them would be either amused or outraged at being labelled cultural Marxists themselves. These ideas are therefore like a virus carried by hosts who are likely to be unconscious of being infected - a very dangerous state of affairs.

However it has arisen, I'm afraid that this infection now rages unabated through all of our mainstream political parties. Simply challenging their representatives when they appear on our doorsteps at election time will change nothing, because those professionally involved in politics (even at doorstep level) are skilled at disarming criticism and pretending that self-evidently harmful policies are actually designed for our own benefit if we could but see it.

In other words, all of our main institutions and political parties are now too diseased to be capable of reform, even if they were prepared to acknowledge the need for it and willing to undergo it.

Augustus

"One of the most sublime characteristics of human nature is the love for the weak; a child in the crib, the most vulnerable of all creation, has nothing to fear even from criminals." Yes, naive perhaps, but this was written in 1909 as part of a thesis on child murder. As society emerged into the 20th Century, there was a dawning of different attitudes towards children of all ages which perhaps had been lacking in the previous century. Children, from tiny tots to adulthood were valued as the hub around which a family turned.

But in the New Labour Britain of today, a party which specifically promised to abolish child poverty, so many now face the twin calamities of deprivation and depravity.
An epidemic of drugs and drink is pole-axing parenting. Thousands of children are said to arrive at school barely able to speak, let alone behave. They are Children in Need indeed.

Joe Strummer

What a strange and sinister little country we are. There are countless stringent Health & Safety laws vigorously and gleefully enforced by the local council Stasi representatives in schools to prevent children injuring themselves in what was generally accepted before as normal horseplay, yet no laws could be enacted to remove Baby P from his living Hell.

As for the modern working class aka the underclass, Melanie's forebear on the Moral Maze David Starkey summed it up perfectly, " they don't work and they have no class".

Verity

Scott writes with the toxicity of the easily excited: "Ask a religious Jew WHY God is G-d you ignorant, self-aggrandising wannabe."

I'm a "wannabe" what, Scott? Please explain.

I'm not Jewish. Why would I be expected to familiar with what is proscripted in the Jewish faith? Any more than I am familiar with the religious niceties of the Catholic Church. I'm not dismissive of them. I'm not familiar with them. I have never seen God written thusly before, except on LGF and I just thought it was a cliquey little habit they had.

But do tell me what I'm a "wannabe" of. I'm dying to know what my ambition is!

Neil Saunders - Thanks for an excellent and thought-provoking post.

None of these people will own up to belonging to Common Purpose. They are warned not to let on. I have read that the entire British cabinet, and the one before that, are members. As are most of the local apparachiks and every member of Britain's 1,300 "quangoes". (Why does no other country need quangoes? But I digress.) They are warned to deny membership. I can only guess that David Cameron and most of his shadow cabinet, save the independent-spirited William Hague and David Davis, are members. It's a very powerful organisation - as you noted - Marxist - and very secretive. No one will admit to membership, but their members permeate our society.

I'm trying to copy a link about Common Purpose, and when I manage to get it to work, I'll post it.

Verity

When I went to this link about Common Purpose, which I saved a year ago, this morning, it worked. When I tried to post it on this thread, Google Video came up, but the screen is blank. Does anyone know what is wrong with this link? I cut and pasted it a year ago and it worked 10 minutes ago on my computer and now doesn't work.

Have I chopped the end off, or something? It runs for 116 minutes and is rivetting.

Verity

I think this might work. Maybe not exactly Saturday night viewing ... it's almost two hours long, but it is rivetting.
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v1165968ctQM9ckt

(Posted in response to Neil Saunders' comments above.)

phil

Vision Aforethought please do not apologise to this stupid woman ,she insults anyone she can get a chance to,The more educated understand why you use the hyphen and Scott has put my own thoughts down for me extremely well.For anyone other than the fragrant one ,we should not take the lords name in vain .

Frank P

Neil Saunders

Yours is an astute diagnosis of the dilemma; its effects just as planned by Gramsci's disciples. But despite being tagged as 'lunatic conspiracy theorists' we must persist, as more and more light is shone on the counter-culture hegemony that has developed.

Exposure of Obama's links to Frank Davis, his exposure to Alinski's 'rules', his close association with Ayer's and his wife Bernadette Dohrn - and the coven that revolves around their milieu, has been helpful. Melanie's blog was one of the first to expose the Gramsci influence back in 2003; others such as John Fonte of the Hudson Institute have also written extensively on the subject. For those who are new to the phenomenon it is worth practising your Google skills. A plethora of information exists if you are interested. Sean Gabb is another writer who has written much about Gramsci, though his ultra libertarian stance may not be everybody’s cup of tea.

Gramsci himself would be delighted that the seeds he sowed have reaped such a rich harvest. Those of us who have for years invigilated (officially and unofficially in retirement) watched and warned of the ravages of Marxism and its modified covert by-products must continue to rally to Melanie's support. Its unholy alliance with Islamic jihad - a marriage of convenience that each party intends to ditch when either feels it has gained the upper hand in global domination - is a liaison spawned in hell. We must not underestimate its insidious and pervasive contagion. Unfortunately HM Opposition seems oblivious to the phenomenon and I suspect many within their upper ranks have, as Neil points out, unwittingly assimilated some of the tenets during their days immersed in the Halls of Academe, which are awash with Gramscian covert tutelage.

Few realise just how many covert counter-culture agents from the US, South America, the Caribbean, Africa and the Far East, financed by Sino-soviet Agitprop, descended on London during the mid 1960’s and early 1970s, using the squats in the Victorian Houses of Notting Hill blighted by the Westway Extension works, where they organised and spread through the institutions. Some of their contacts now hold Offices of State. The mainstream media, particularly the BBC is riddled with them; leftist authors, playwrights, educators abound. And the institutions and infrastructure of the nation seethes with the infestation. I fear that credulous electorate may again fall for the subterfuge and vote them back into power in 2010, as there may be no choice with the current contending parties to do otherwise. The Tories should assure us that they are Gramsci-free. As far as I know none of the shadow cabinet has mentioned Gramsci, or his counter culture writings. Moreover the deep silence from the Tory party during the US Election campaign about Obama’s dubious leftist connections was disgraceful. Wake up Britain! Your country is the victim of a two-pronged attack and there is no visible political representation to oppose either prong of that attack. Dhimmitude and accommodation are all that is offered. Wake up Uncle Sam! I feel that once aware of what you have done this month, your country has at least the balls and gumption to do something about it. I’m not so sure about Britain, but we must keep on going on.

James Hodson

C Powell: "The biggest crime liberals have committed is to say that we must not be judgemental and to attack all moral standards other than doing what you want."

Unless, of course, the action, thought or speech being judged falls outside their current PC idea of so-and-so being OK - beliefs which changes like the seasons.

Personal anecdotes don't really have much have a place here and mostly don't advance any argument but ... My own father died when I was 3 months old; essentially I was brought up as the child of a single mother.

However, her morals (remember those?) were those of one half of a married couple. Her age - she was born in 1921 - probably helped too.

This does make a difference.

Verity

Vision Aforethought, thanks for your civil response to me. If I'd known it was a religious requirement, of course I would not have commented on it.

At the same time, we are under no obligation to be familiar with the strictures imposed by other religions. I have never been to a service in a Roman Catholic church, although they look interesting, because I don't know when to curtsey. I never went to a ceremony in a Hindu temple when I lived briefly in India because I was always afraid I'd wash my hands in the holy water, or something and they'd all come racing forward.

Barackobama

Neil Saunders
Welfarism is an idea originating in the arguments in favour of liberal individualism. Its first manifestation in the UK was the 1834 Poor Law Act which was based on the view that the individual was responsible for his/her poverty. It replaced the previous belief that the poor were divinely-ordained or, as Malthus argued, an unavoidable expression of the natural order. Its authors were impeccable Christian, free market, liberal individualists (ie, not Marxists/lefties) who believed that the poor, with the right government incentives, could lift themselves out of poverty. Every British social reform originates from that. All UK welfare payments, including the state pension, continue to be barely above subsistence levels, as those who designed the 1834 law would have recommended.
Large-scale income and wealth redistribution, the other bogey in this blog, was first attempted in the UK by the Tory government of Lord Salisbury which was in power with one short interruption from 1886-1902. It involved the state nationalising huge tracts of Ireland and providing government-subsidised loans to Irish peasants to buy it. Salisbury was an advocate of self-help and said: "No men ever rise to any permanent improvement in their condition of body or of mind except by relying upon their own personal efforts". But, of course, he may have been a Marxist revolutionary of the Gramscian kind.
The Whig Poor Law didn't work (it was superseded by serial increases in public social welfare spending) nor did the Tory Land Purchase scheme (the UK gave up on Ireland in 1921 after the very people who had benefitted from British generosity turned violently against it).
We are where we are today because of unintended consequences, not conspiracy, and ideology has practically nothing to do with it.

Kennybhoy

Jeremy Wilkinson,

Please forgive my obtuseness but could you perhaps elaborate on your post below.I think that I might be in agreement with you, but I am uncertain as to what exactly you are getting at...?

EC

Frank P,

The method is easy,

Put the mouse pointer over the picture. 'Click' the RH button and then select 'Properties' on the drop down menu displayed.

The 'Properties' information displayed reveals that the image is stored at: http://www.spectator.co.uk/blogs/media//Image/Niobe.jpg.

The people at the Speccie are very obliging and usually store the image with a helpful name and in this case it is "Niobe.jpg"

Googling about Niobe and a visual check reveals:

The subject is "Apollo and Diana Attacking Niobe and her Children."
This particular depiction is from 1772 painted by Anicet-Charles-Gabriel Lemonnier,
and its current location might be the Musee des Beaux-Arts, Rouen.

A visit to: http://www.loggia.com/myth/niobe.html

... will give you the whole tragic tale.

Kennybhoy

Jeremy Wilkinson,

Please forgive any obtuseness on my part but could you possibly elaborate on your earlier post above? I think that I might very well be in agreement with you, but I am not quite sure if I understand what exactly it is that you saying...

Anyways. Has anyone else here read J D Unwin's "Sex and Culture"? In common with Freud, he believed that civilization was the product of the rational control of innate desire. The book is hard to come by and rather expensive these days but I think that I may be available online to download.

Sergey

It is not the first dark age of barbarism in English history. In the early 19 century alcoholism of working class was a social norm, every second woman in Whitechappel was a prostitute, and so on. How did it ended? By a Great Awakening and a huge effort of charities, orphanages and propaganda of sobriety and moral restraint. And this really was the only way out of rampant moral depravity. Let us hope that a new Great Awakening of moral fundamentalism will emerge from present chaos and economic hardship.

john east

There have been some excellent views expressed on this thread, and I congatulate you all on looking at the fundamental causes rather than simply blaming social workers, the police, parents, or whoever the latest knee jerk scapegoat happens to be.

The one aspect of the recent Russell Grant, Johnathan Ross scandal that will stay in my mind when all the details are forgotten illustrates the fundamental nature of the societal changes that we have increasingly witnessed over recent years. I read in one newspaper article a breakdown of those who were most critical of the BBC and the two comedians, and it was claimed that the moral outrage against the humiliation and distress caused to Andrew Sachs and his family was concentrated amongst the over 40's. It's not that the younger generation are consciously cruel or insensitive, it's just that many of them honestly didn't get it - there was just no empathy. If true, and I had no reason to disagree with this story, it's quite chilling. The implication is that things can only get worse when those of us born before the 1960's, when hedonism and individual gratification began to replace morality and family, eventually die off.

Frank P

EC

Thank you very much for your instruction on the wonderful ways of the Internet. You are very kind. Sometimes I wish I had been born 50 years later, but taking a look around, perhaps I've seen the best of Western Civilisation at first hand and I'm not so keen on experiencing its accelerating decline. But then I've just been watching the Govan Gargoyle McBraun strutting his stuff in Washington, quaffing booze at £250 per bottle and complaining that HM Opoosition is resisting his attempts to impose his form of Communism upon the World's capitalist infrastructure, by pointing out that the £ is going through the floor. He apparently has not noticed. Oh my!

Frank P

EC

Hmmmnn. Beware of Bubbles baring barbarisim! And Dianafication of it at the Apollo sinema.

Andrew Rutey

Mrs Phillips you're a very smart lady, sadly I fear it is far too late for our society to ever regain its sanity.
The class of '68 have won but what exactly have they won - it breaks my heart to say it but this land is a broken, morally decrepit hellhole that can surely only get much, much worse.
I would write my thoughts at greater length but you have already voiced them so acurately.
How ironic that it is now conservatives like us that are having to adopt hippie slogans about 'dropping out' and 'going underground'.
Stop the world, I want to get off.

Ray

"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." (Matthew 5:11-12).

Plus ca change, Melanie. But take heart. God will not forever be mocked.

Herbert Thornton

It's difficult to summarise, in one blog, everything that is going wrong, but I think it would make a rather good book for somebody who could combine the talents and techniques of George Orwell and Alexander Solzhenytsin. It would be set in Britain in the near future.

The economic crisis would, in Britain, have turned into a depression much worse than that following the 1929 crash - many more millions people would unemployed. The government's efforts to revive the economy are not working, and there is severe inflation.

Things are so bad that in some towns, there are riots.

The government is in such despair that it calls a General Election.

Loyal Labour and Tory voters stay away from the polls to such an extent that Labour and Tory M.P.s are reduced to a rump of about 25% of members. 15% of M.P.s are militant Muslims with ties to Al Qaeda. 10% of the members belong to the National Front. 15% consist of Liberals, Greens, The New Feminist Party and Independents. The rest are the BNP with 35%.

The Queen confers with Prince Charles about whom to invite to form a government. Various M.P.s from the Liberals, Independents, Labour-Tory rump and the Green Party are asked if they can attract enough support to form a government. They can't and it develops into a crisis lasting many weeks.

Finally, the Queen invites the leader of the B.N.P. to form a government, on condition that he doesn't join forces with the National Front. He agrees, on the understanding that a new General Election will be called within a year.

It then becomes obvious that Parliament is not going to be able to enact any legislation proposed by the government. There are more riots, some instigated by the National Front, some incited by militant Muslim Clerics calling for the establishment of a Caliphate.

The year is nearly up and the promised new General Election is called. By now, the amount of social disorder in some towns requires the intervention of the Army to preserve general law and order. Despite this, the day after the Election is called, Islamic extremists succeed in detonating a dirty nuclear bomb in London. This so incenses the electorate that Election Day ends with the BNP having 40%, followed by the National Front with 30%. For the first time, the seats formerly occupied by militant Muslims remain vacant - because Islamic Clerics have denounced the British system of government as un-Islamic and sinful - and have issued fatwas against both nominating and voting.

Parliament now enacts legislation to suppress terrorism and to completely stop further immigration. This is followed by widespread Muslim insurrection which the army has difficulty in controlling.

Then in a surprise move, the National Front - supported by some parts of the army, effect a coup. Parliament is shut down, all other parties including the BNP are ordered to disband, and Britain descends into civil war.

The book would of course include the effects of these events on the lives of various ordinary people, an assassination or two, attempted interventions by the E.U., deportations of Brussels bureaucrats, maybe even the blowing up of the Channel tunnel, outbreaks of various deadly epidemics caused by the collapse of the public health systems and people being hanged from lamposts and in some places beheaded. All very apocalyptic. If a best seller results, may I please have 1% of the royalties?

Dave

Vertitty: Thank goodness there's no story so terrible that a cheap jibe based on my poor spelling isn't worth it.

Mike

The strangest part in all this is the Head of Haringey's Childrens Services failure to comprehend they have in any way done badly. They have ticked all the right boxes and know all the right on phrases, they are part of the ruling elite and if they say everything is OK then that is how it is. The screaming horror of this case does not register with these spaced out Hippy children.

mckenzie

A good post on a blog on the Internet. And lots of good comments. The Internet is a better place for it now. Shame that the real world is so fucked up though.

Frank P

Herbert Thornton

Why not write it yourself and cop the lion's share of the royalties.

Btw the plot is not much more preposterous than Gordon Brown winning the next election - and that is already on the cards. In which case your lamp-post scenarios become even more feasible.

Jim

Scott, your response to that ill-mannered know-it-all Verity was priceless. I hope you don't bother explaining what you mean by "wannabe" because she'll never get it (though the rest of us do!). And to you Miss V, I'd simply say that whether you understood the reason that Jews do not write the word God in full is irrelevant; this is not a forum that is supposed to be run on your rules or your terms. At least on this blog equality rules, and bad manners are simply unwelcome.

Verity

Herbert Thornton - Only 1%? Are you mad?

Not to detract from Herbert Thornton's brilliant post, but I have said for over 10 years, since the advent of the toxic Blair, that the Army would be on the streets of Britain at some point.

George Steiner

From time to time some of you invoke the name of God. As in “God help us”. He will not.

I had a word with him the other day. “Look Mr. Steiner, you know the old saying, I will help those who help themselves?

These people don’t help themselves. They just sit around and moan. When they decide to get off their **** I will see what I can do. But not till then.”

Scott

Verity: "I'm not Jewish".

A given - Jews are generally well-educated and courteous.

A wannabe what?
A wannabe 'opinion-former', desperately seeking to be a 'somebody'.

Reality: a nobody; playground bully; conspiracy wingnut; ferociously fallacious; hateful to others - except toadying admirers; racist; just a typical bloated and rootless ex-pat.

Definitely not up to your own standards Verity but I'm new to vitriol.

Mehran

As someone who's not British by birth, and therefore not naturally used to the 'British way of life' I used to deride the old-fashioned and stuffy ways things were done in this country. I used to long for a reinvigorating breath of fresh air to blow away the cobwebs and make this country look and act like every other.

Now I look around me and absolutely despair of just about everything: the falling educational standards, bad behaviour and general lack of respect and consideration for others, the monumental selfishness on the part of the spoilt young, the idiotic way people speak nowadays, the de-sensitisation to violence...the list goes on.

And like Melanie, I think the liberal intelligensia have a lot to answer for for this state of affairs (I reserve a particular loathing for that joyless Polly Tonybee and her pieties, as she perfectly exemplifies the liberal commentariat's self-appointed role as champions of progress). They have created or caused to create a nasty, over-regulated, dumbed down and violent society.

In short Britain has lost its way. But more tragically it's lost the will to do anything about it.

An American

Conservative Cabbie,
I read many of these comments a second time...I'm impressed with the intelligence of Melanie's bloggers....however, when it takes a blogger an enormous amount of print to get to his/her point or try to impress...I move on. I always enjoy your comments...You are concise and stand out as having both intelligence and common sense.
Your latest comments to Rob were right on. Unfortunatly, our societies have fallen over the moral precipice. Let's hope there is a rope tied around our ankle before we hit bottom.

An American

Herbert Thornton,
This isn't fiction...many of us see this coming... I've been having nightmares that come close to what you describe in your blog. How did we allow this to happen?

Ellien

A couple of 17 year olds with a baby want to move out of her parent's flat. She goes on her own to the Housing Office (he's at college), where the very helpful and "right-on" officer tells her she'd best take the flat on her own as she'll have all expenses paid, as long as her boy-friend doesn't stay more than four nights a week. If he lives with her he will have to pay the rent once he gets a job. They've had a tiff and so she's all for it, while he reluctantly concedes as he is terrified he will not earn enough to pay the rent, the bills, food, etc..
So here we see a public service actively helping in the break-up of a fledgling family - and who are we to judge. She's on medication for depression, so am I being alarmist when I fear for the future of this baby? Battering comes to mind, and the kind of neglect that, if the child survives (usually they do)he or she ends up on the child Protection Register or in Care (and frequently also develops serious mental health problems).

Melanie is spot on with her understanding of what it is children need in order to thrive in life. One of these is two parents who support each other, and who feel that the values of the society they live in support them.

William B Hammond

When a civilisation cannot decide what is right or wrong it will be taken over by a civilisation with stronger convictions. It's happening now but we still have a choice. 1) Dump the relativistic thinking and return to Christian values or 2) Continue with our decadent ways until we are taken over by Islam. It's that simple. No civilisation lasts forever and usually brings about its own demise through decadence, weakness of mind and a general lowering of defences leaving it open to attack by invaders. We are playing host to the invaders now and they are behaving like good guests. But that will end when their numbers reach a critical mass and they become much more assertive. When this happens the feminists who have contributed to the downfall of western civilisation will realise they have shot themselves in the foot. They certainly wont get what they want from Islam.

Jerry

I am amazed at the logic expressed by more than one of the posters on this article. They state as the basis for their opposition to MP's point of view that baby-P is an aberration and cannot be used to draw conclusions about British society. That MP is misusing the tragedy of this baby to make a point that she has made before, ad nauseum.

What argument would suffice to change their opinions? Not individual tragic cases? Not well conducted studies of human family relationships? Not solid research work on strangers within a family? Not developmental and cross-species studies in successful rearing of the young?

What fact is useful to those who have an entire world view to protect? The acceptance of any finding contrary to an already established point of view is near-impossible for such organisms.

Shy Guy

Melanie, it was summed up in half a sentence in this past Shabbat's Torah reading, Parshat Va'yehrah, when Abraham said to King Avimelech "For I said, 'Surely, there is no fear of God in this place....'" (Genesis 21:11).

James Murphy

Melanie says: 'The truth is that it is all far, far too late. Britain has simply undone the fabric of civilised life...' I'd like to believe in the conclusiveness of her argument, but something in baulks at the suggestion that this is a new problem. In this regard, I've just re-read Dickens' excoriating letter to The Times 150 years ago about the abhorrent nature of the low-life London mob at the scene of a public execution. It's all there: the vulpine appetite and greed, the animalistic blood-lust, the delight in cruelty and the ecstasy in the distress of others. - And of course, it's ALWAYS been there, and always WILL be there. Politics cannot address this problem - because it does not permeate the soul of man and reach to the part where his ugliness might be worked upon and transformed. Ultimately, I see societal energy as possessing a kind of oceanic quality, with its ebb and flow, its neap tides and high tides upon which true individuality is a proverbial storm-tossed bark. All that sensitive, intellectually passionate, emotionally articulate individuals can do is to navigate as best they can by the sun, moon and stars of their own ideals and personal integrity, and enjoin other like-minded souls to get on board with them and leave the masses to drown in their biblical floods... - By the way, in reading The Old Thunderer I couldn't help but wonder - when exactly was the precise moment that The Times turned into the tedious, lippy whore of the bloated left-wing sugar-daddy establishment it has become..?

Oliver

Only the truely ignorant of history would see this as A: new, or B: the sky falling in, erm sorry emblematic of 'a new dark age of barbarism.

A quick look at infant mortality in the 19th century is in order, during the 'golden age' of Victoria.

For example look at the Marylebone Vestry district between 1843 and 1858, where 46% of children born out of wedlock died before they reached a year, or Sheffield during the 1870s where 58% of children born out of wedlock died before they reached a year old (for children born in wedlock it was 16%)

It is precisely the advent of progressive values of child welfare that has caused these horrible horrible deaths to become newsworthy due to their scaresity.

Brian G.

Spot on!!!
I agree 100%

Jim, Yardley, PA, U.S.A.

While I was reading this for a moment I thought the author was referring to the United States because every last word certainly applies. Family life has truly taken a turn for the worse with the government as a willing accomplice. My theory on this is that when the father is out of the house, the government takes on greater import in the way on an increased dependence of both mother and child. This dependence brings forth political allegiance which is exactly what the government is striving for. It's awfully sad but true.

phil

Scott and Jim -brilliant! I have been trying for so long to tell her what you have both told her succinctly and I have got nowhere,because she claims never to read those that criticise her-of course she does ,.but one thing we shouldn't accuse her of is anti Jewish rhetoric, and I am not one normally who will defend her-she is not guilty of that -rather she has a DR STRANGELOVE REACTION ENFORCING HER TO WRITE UNCONTROLLABLY, SARCASTICALLY AND OFFENSIVELY .I doubt there is a cure

.It is a pity as she has a lot of knowledge that could be useful ,but loses her audience once they become appalled by her ignorant manners .I am grateful for your better grasp of language than I have previously been able to muster

phil

One thing is a given that when 60 visits have been made to one home to see one baby,something is seriously wrong and anyone with an ounce of common sense should stand up regardless of any so called rules and scream the house down .That is part of what is so wrong now within our society -"its not my concern,pass it on "-THAT STARTED AT MINISTER LEVEL -The abominable people who eventually killed this baby were merely the bullets ,someone else fired the gun and it certainly was not the poor social worker who was dismissed .The fact that the head of the department in Haringey cannot see that someone needed to intervene is beyond my comprehension regardless of the fact "that everyone kept to the rules "

Geoff M