Great Expectations – or Bleak House!

 

Junius examines the state of modern Britain

 

 

Time, it seems, has become an important factor in politics, except that today, ‘one step ahead’ usually means five steps backwards. While the pathetic Tory hopeful dishes out cartloads of garbage about the need for modernisation, those who really do care about the shocking plight of our Nation are accused of wanting to put the clock back. So, let us just do that, and see what we find. Let us go back to the 1930’s, the years immediately before madmen plunged us into a disastrous and wholly unnecessary war, since when we have lost everything from Empire to self respect.

 

Health and strength

 

In those days we had no creaking, mismanaged National Health Service, costing billions and with thousands of useless administrators on the gravy train, but could be truly proud of locally managed hospitals which were caring, efficient and clean. Moreover there were many schemes whereby working people could get health insurance for a copper or so. Just 3d. a week, that is to say not much more than 1p in our daft decimalised currency, covered my medical requirements including visits to the family doctor. Younger people will not remember the family doctor who worked on his own and brought in what was known as a locum when he went on a well deserved vacation. If you really needed this chap by your bedside, there was no nonsense about “maybe you could walk or be driven to the surgery”. Perhaps the most frightening thing about the family doctor was that invariably he knew more about you than you did yourself.

 

 Of course, we are talking of days long before we became a multicultural society, with people today outrageously demanding attention for minor ailments, physically attacking their GPs, and summoning ambulances for the most absurd of reasons! Remember also that, as I have said, this being a period before we were able to enjoy the heaven sent wonders of multiculturalism, doctors and nurses were hardly ever required to deal with the self-inflicted problems of those countless thousands who now voluntarily decide to destroy mind and body with illegal substances at a cost of billions of pounds to the taxpayer.

 

Schooldays

 

In the 1930’s nobody talked about ‘falling standards’ and dismal pass rates. A first class education was there if you had a mind to take advantage of it. Parents who earned a little over the average paid something towards it, and that was no problem. The teachers were specialists and knew their subjects backwards as the expression goes. In my secondary school, Forms One to Five were each divided into three sections, so that we had, for example, from higher to lower, Form Three (the brightest) Form Three A (the not quite so bright) and Form Three Alpha (the least bright). And each year, just like the football league, we had demotions and promotions within these sections. The system worked! Science, maths, English, history, geography and foreign languages were not optional and, whatever section we ended up in when moving to Form Five, no one could say that they had not had a rounded and balanced education. The horrific scenes now common in our multicultural classrooms would not have been tolerated for a single second. But then, there were no reasons why such scenes were to be expected. We were there to learn. And there were no political charlatans around demanding that at least 50% of us should enjoy ‘higher’ education just for the hell of it! The numbers game and the daft degrees that go with it had not then been invented.

 

Law and Order

 

There was a time when we had a recognisable police force, a local bobby, a village bobby, someone always there, someone always on the spot to look after the interests of our folk. Their very presence ensured that crime remained at a minimum, and was generally limited to areas such as Soho in London where, even in those halcyon days, oriental gangs (tongs!) had established themselves in our capital city. That was a time when, if you were law abiding, you would find the police on your side. Today it is different. If you shoot some bastard who is stealing your property then you are the criminal! And what of the punishments in those old days? Yes, by modern standards the birch and the cat were barbaric, but nothing could have been more effective, and a life for a life certainly made a would-be killer think twice. Nowadays those few police who are still left on the ground are inhibited from stopping and searching those who may be about to commit, or have committed, a crime, especially if they are not white! On the other hand exceed the speed limit by 5 mph and you are in trouble. Even worse, make a racist comment and look forward to a jail sentence.

 

Don’t talk to me about the evils of putting the clock back!