# Is Britain Broken? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 16, 2009, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-britain-broken/503213 "2009-07-16T12:53:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Walker\_in\_Eternity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/46a35a/32.png) [@Walker\_in\_Eternity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walker_in_Eternity)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2009, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-britain-broken/503213/21 "2009-07-17T12:25:41Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > **BrainGlutton** beat me to it. > > Were you planning to emigrate to the United States? No sense coming over here if your country is simply turning into an island version of us. šŸ™‚ Sorry, but no. Canada or New Zealand are the possibilities Iā€™m currently exploring. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2009, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-britain-broken/503213/22 "2009-07-17T13:44:51Z")
> [@Walker\_in\_Eternity](#): > > Thanks, I keep thinking Marcus Aurelius said something similar too, but I could be mistaken. Considering his heirs, he would have been absolutely correct - the generations following his were objectively worse than those before. In fact, I think everyone is reaching the exact wrong conclusion from the quote. Itā€™s not that things never change; itā€™s that things are \*always \*changing. ---
**Author:** ![Walker\_in\_Eternity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/46a35a/32.png) [@Walker\_in\_Eternity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walker_in_Eternity)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2009, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-britain-broken/503213/23 "2009-07-17T14:47:23Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Considering his heirs, he would have been absolutely correct - the generations following his were objectively worse than those before. > > In fact, I think everyone is reaching the exact wrong conclusion from the quote. Itā€™s not that things never change; itā€™s that things are \*always \*changing. Maybe itā€™s more of a sin wave than a steady decline? ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2009, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-britain-broken/503213/24 "2009-07-17T16:25:35Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > donā€™t jump all over me, but could it have something to do with alcohol intake? Iā€™ve read that the amount of booze consumed by the Brits is astounding and that the most dangerous country in Europe to be in is England - when the pubs let out. (maybe theyā€™ve always been heavy drinkers? and the problems theyā€™re having now are unrelated.) or racial tension due to so many immigrants? ā€œBinge drinkingā€ is the latest moral panic, similar to the gin craze in the eighteenth century. Heavy drinking isnā€™t, despite what many would have you believe, a phenomenon unknown outside the UK. The Irish, Scandinavians and Germans are just as bad. ---
**Author:** ![MyFootsZZZ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/myfootszzz/32/12580_2.png) [@MyFootsZZZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MyFootsZZZ)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-britain-broken/503213/25 "2009-07-17T18:48:36Z")
Here in the Stateā€™s; I feel that things have taken a turn for the worse in many obvious ways, but the one thing I, (PERSONALY), \*think \* may be fundamentally changing is the there seems to be more of a ā€˜kinshipā€™ with each other. Maybe itā€™s that the playing-feld seems to be leveling a bit; Where the rich arenā€™t as rich, and the powerful are more varied in background. Or perhaps itā€™s just my own feelings of self-worth seem to be improving because of this idea that, barriers are being broken and yet weā€™re still all venerable. I feel empathy, even for ā€˜ritchiesā€™ that have to get used to a different lifestyle, with less security, which isnā€™t easy. So, I donā€™t know if Iā€™m projecting, or if thereā€™s really a change. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2009, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-britain-broken/503213/26 "2009-07-17T19:08:44Z")
> [@Walker\_in\_Eternity](#): > > Thanks, I keep thinking Marcus Aurelius said something similar too, but I could be mistaken. Considering his son, he had reason to. ---
**Author:** ![RedFury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ec9cab/32.png) [@RedFury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedFury)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2009, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-britain-broken/503213/27 "2009-07-17T19:24:47Z")
Nothing some Krazy Glue canā€™t fix. ---
**Author:** ![Ryan\_Liam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ryan_liam/32/3965_2.png) [@Ryan\_Liam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ryan_Liam)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2009, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-britain-broken/503213/28 "2009-07-17T21:25:52Z")
Is there something wrong with society which seems to need to drown its sorrows with alcohol every weekend? ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2009, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-britain-broken/503213/29 "2009-07-18T01:44:41Z")
Whatā€™s a lollipop lady? ---
**Author:** ![Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uosdwis_R.Dewoh)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2009, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-britain-broken/503213/30 "2009-07-18T02:09:49Z")
They are a bunch of ladies whose agenda is to stop children from doing something, not sure what. Hereā€™s a [picture](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2a/SheilaGallagherLollipopLadyStPauls.jpg) of a typical lollipop lady with her protest placard outside St Paulā€™s Cathedral. ---
**Author:** ![StaudtCJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@StaudtCJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StaudtCJ)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2009, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-britain-broken/503213/31 "2009-07-18T02:10:44Z")
I believe that here in the U.S. weā€™d call them ā€œcrossing guardsā€. Theyā€™re volunteer adults that stand at intersections and roadways along popular walk-to-school routes to stop traffic for the safety of the young walkers. They often carry a hand-held stop/go sign that looks much like a lollipop. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2009, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-britain-broken/503213/32 "2009-07-18T03:20:51Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > All right, who broke the Britain ? Own up. It was perfectly fine this morning when I left for work, and now look at it. All mangy and crimy. \*Someone \*tampered with it. Nobody gets dessert until you tell me who broke it. You wonā€™t get punished, I just want the truth. Well ? **I** did. And Iā€™ll do it again. And again and again until every street and lane in that green and pleasant and abominably cruel and tooth-rotted land is a river of blood. All of which is undeniably, of course, change for the better! šŸ™‚ ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2009, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-britain-broken/503213/33 "2009-07-18T03:28:12Z")
> [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](#): > > They are a bunch of ladies whose agenda is to stop children from doing something, not sure what. I think their agenda is actually radically pro-abortion. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2009, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-britain-broken/503213/34 "2009-07-18T13:16:46Z")
At the ripe old age of fifty five I can remember that living on a rough council estate I could leave a bycycle anywhere without a lock and chain on it and find it still there hours later. We didnā€™t lock the doors of houses even when we were out,car owners left their cars unlocked,often with the keys in the ignition. Tradesmens payments were left pinned to the front door in an envelope when they were due but my mother had to go out,they were never stolen. Burgular alarms on private houses were almost unheard of. Teachers were virtually never verbally abused by pupils let alone physically attacked or even raped. If people chose to swear at police they took the consequences so it didnā€™t happen all that often. People always trot out the old chestnuts,as in Biggus Dickus in two thousand B.C. made the same complaint,so as to make it appear that the perception of a sickening society today is merely the symptons of old age on the part of the speaker, rather then what actually is a real phenomonen. Britain today is a much more dangerous place to live for the ordinary person then at any time in the Britain of the previous hundred years IMO. A major cause of this is that children are not punished in any real sense of the word by either their parents or the education system for serious transgressions,assault,criminal damage or even to my knowledge,arson. You see the pitiful scene of parents trying to play the part of psychiatrists by reasoning with their offspring,and trying to discover some deep underlying motive for their childs bad behaviour rather then punishing them. Not letting a child play their video game for so many hours or grounding them is NOT a real punishment and acts as a deterrent to only the most spolit brat on this planet. Most kids dont suffer from these denials but do in fact play the part of someone who really is hurting because as long as the parents think that its working they wont be issuing any REAL punishments. Unfortunately these non punishments have no,or at best a very negligible effect on modifying bad behaviour. And then the kids grow upā€¦ ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2009, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-britain-broken/503213/35 "2009-07-18T13:33:53Z")
> [@StaudtCJ](#): > > I believe that here in the U.S. weā€™d call them ā€œcrossing guardsā€. Theyā€™re volunteer adults that stand at intersections and roadways along popular walk-to-school routes to stop traffic for the safety of the young walkers. They often carry a hand-held stop/go sign that looks much like a lollipop. Volunteers???:eek::eek::eek:There is SO much wrong with that, I canā€™t even beginā€¦:smack: ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2009, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-britain-broken/503213/36 "2009-07-18T14:45:02Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > **I** did. And Iā€™ll do it again. And again and again until every street and lane in that green and pleasant and abominably cruel and tooth-rotted land is a river of blood. All of which is undeniably, of course, change for the better! šŸ™‚ Go to your room ! You are grounded, young man. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2009, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-britain-broken/503213/37 "2009-07-18T14:50:08Z")
> [@Walker\_in\_Eternity](#): > > Maybe itā€™s more of a sin wave than a steady decline? Pretty much. In fact, by saying that society canā€™t get worse, youā€™re also saying that society canā€™t get better - which is one of the most depressing things Iā€™ve ever heard. ---
**Author:** ![StaudtCJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@StaudtCJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StaudtCJ)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2009, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-britain-broken/503213/38 "2009-07-18T16:00:31Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > Volunteers???:eek::eek::eek:There is SO much wrong with that, I canā€™t even beginā€¦:smack: They get paid in the U.K.? Wow. They donā€™t, generally, here in the U.S. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2009, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-britain-broken/503213/39 "2009-07-19T23:31:36Z")
> [@StaudtCJ](#): > > They get paid in the U.K.? Wow. They donā€™t, generally, here in the U.S. No, actually theyā€™re draftees. šŸ˜‰ ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2009, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-britain-broken/503213/40 "2009-07-20T00:19:08Z")
Iā€™m pretty sure Iā€™ve known some American crossing guards who did it as a job and were paid. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-britain-broken/503213.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-britain-broken/503213.md?page=3)