Andrew Marr The History of Modern Britain

StevieJ

Sapphire wrote: »

I wouldn't say it is a 'gross' misrepresentation: some of the working population also took drugs. Certainly, more 'vulnerable' people are exposed to drugs now, as they are to violence in the form of gut-wrenchingly violent video games and films. However, not all young people take drugs – I know many that don't, beyond the odd smoke. Kids need interesting things to do to be engaged, as well as the right sorts of role models to whom they can look up to. They certainly don't have the latter now.

In any case, this question is rather OT from the points I was making in my original emails …

This may of some relevance, it was written not long after the 50's and 60's

Monty Python's Flying Circus -
"Four Yorkshiremen"

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=HSQeMBzHR0o&feature=related

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1a1wHxTyo

[ from the album Live At Drury Lane, 1974 ]
The Players: Michael Palin - First Yorkshireman;
Graham Chapman - Second Yorkshireman;
Terry Jones - Third Yorkshireman;
Eric Idle - Fourth Yorkshireman;
The Scene: Four well-dressed men are sitting together at a vacation resort.
'Farewell to Thee' is played in the background on Hawaiian guitar. FIRST YORKSHIREMAN: Aye, very passable, that, very passable bit of risotto. SECOND YORKSHIREMAN: Nothing like a good glass of Château de Chasselas, eh, Josiah? THIRD YORKSHIREMAN: You're right there, Obadiah. FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN: Who'd have thought thirty year ago we'd all be sittin' here drinking Château de Chasselas, eh? FIRST YORKSHIREMAN: In them days we was glad to have the price of a cup o' tea. SECOND YORKSHIREMAN: A cup o' cold tea. FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN: Without milk or sugar. THIRD YORKSHIREMAN: Or tea. FIRST YORKSHIREMAN: In a cracked cup, an' all. FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN: Oh, we never had a cup. We used to have to drink out of a rolled up newspaper. SECOND YORKSHIREMAN: The best we could manage was to suck on a piece of damp cloth. THIRD YORKSHIREMAN: But you know, we were happy in those days, though we were poor. FIRST YORKSHIREMAN: Because we were poor. My old Dad used to say to me, "Money doesn't buy you happiness, son". FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN: Aye, 'e was right. FIRST YORKSHIREMAN: Aye, 'e was. FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN: I was happier then and I had nothin'. We used to live in this tiny old house with great big holes in the roof. SECOND YORKSHIREMAN: House! You were lucky to live in a house! We used to live in one room, all twenty-six of us, no furniture, 'alf the floor was missing, and we were all 'uddled together in one corner for fear of falling. THIRD YORKSHIREMAN: Eh, you were lucky to have a room! We used to have to live in t' corridor! FIRST YORKSHIREMAN: Oh, we used to dream of livin' in a corridor! Would ha' been a palace to us. We used to live in an old water tank on a rubbish tip. We got woke up every morning by having a load of rotting fish dumped all over us! House? Huh. FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN: Well, when I say 'house' it was only a hole in the ground covered by a sheet of tarpaulin, but it was a house to us. SECOND YORKSHIREMAN: We were evicted from our 'ole in the ground; we 'ad to go and live in a lake. THIRD YORKSHIREMAN: You were lucky to have a lake! There were a hundred and fifty of us living in t' shoebox in t' middle o' road. FIRST YORKSHIREMAN: Cardboard box? THIRD YORKSHIREMAN: Aye. FIRST YORKSHIREMAN: You were lucky. We lived for three months in a paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six in the morning, clean the paper bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down t' mill, fourteen hours a day, week-in week-out, for sixpence a week, and when we got home our Dad would thrash us to sleep wi' his belt. SECOND YORKSHIREMAN: Luxury. We used to have to get out of the lake at six o'clock in the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of 'ot gravel, work twenty hour day at mill for tuppence a month, come home, and Dad would thrash us to sleep with a broken bottle, if we were lucky! THIRD YORKSHIREMAN: Well, of course, we had it tough. We used to 'ave to get up out of shoebox at twelve o'clock at night and lick road clean wit' tongue. We had two bits of cold gravel, worked twenty-four hours a day at mill for sixpence every four years, and when we got home our Dad would slice us in two wit' bread knife. FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN: Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us and dance about on our graves singing Hallelujah. FIRST YORKSHIREMAN: And you try and tell the young people of today that ..... they won't believe you. ALL: They won't!

moanymoany

jamescredmond wrote: »

I supported the miners in the 84 dispute from a distance (didn't want to be thought of as a 5th columnist). what made me angry(amongst other things) was her tv appearance, calling the miners the 'enemy within' - comparing them with the argentinians (falklands) as the 'enemy without'.
quote]


Amazingly the Queen came out after this and said that these people were her subjects, not enemies. I can't remember the exact wording of what she said, but it was not in support of Thatcher.

AND that awful moaning, big mouth, arrogant Rachel and 'dead wife' Daniel stayed in the X-Factor leading to lovely Laura getting the old heave ho! :rolleyes:

Justice! There's none!

Pobby

Hi lights of the Thatcher era. When she was dressed up like a soldier being driven in a tank, priceless. When she came on tv and said"We are a grandmother" Oh how we laughed! Best of all was when she was chucked out of Downing Street crying crocodile tears. We all laughed ourselves senseless.

avinabacca

dervish wrote: »

People who criticise Mrs Thatcher are bitter and jealous of those who profited in the true capilastistic style. They think its cool to have a go at someone when they werent around to judge for themsemleves.

.....or they could be rightly angry at the way she presided over a marked decline in investment in the nation.

Funding for education, for example. :rolleyes: