[Stumped]

Originally Posted by garinda

When trying to make a rational judgement about the state of Britain today, I find it more useful to make comparissons in decades, rather than what happened yesterday.

Do I think Britain is a more just place, with greater equality, and greater opportunities for people to reach their full potential, through education for example, and that materially we have more actual 'things', to make life easier, or interesting and pleasurable, and do we have more access to a whole world of things that were once closed off to the majority of people?

Yes, in general terms, compared to ten, twenty, thirty years ago, I do think society is a better place today, than it was then.

I do think emotionally we might not be in so good a place. Perhaps dissatisfaction, and always wanting more and more, leads us to long for some simpler, halcyon, by-gone age. But which in reality, meant we were a hell of a lot worse off then, than we are today.

I think if our great grandparents happened to come back to visit us, they'd agree with Harold Macmillan, and tell us to stop bloomin' well moaning, because compared to the past, we really have never had it so good.

You make a lot of sense. Yes, perhaps the older among us do tend to look back through rose tinted glasses, but never before in my lifetime have I known a time when the feckless appear to be better catered for than the workers. Don't get me wrong, there are indeed many deserving cases for a system of fairly distributed benefits, but I do feel that there must be a more acceptable path to follow than the 'Robin Hood' tactics currently employed. As for approaching local political aspirants, I've gone down that path on several occasions in the past and finished up more confused after the meetings than before - hence my continuing quandary!

Reckon I should listen to my good lady who says; "I don't know why you bother, they're all a waste of time and space!"