There was never a ‘golden age’.  But, for those who have never known any other kind of society than this one, here is a look back to show what is possible (given that it happened, here!) and to remind us how much we have lost.

In 1950s Britain, “we never locked our doors”; “the milkman left milk, eggs and cheese all the way up the road and no-one ever touched them”; “everyone left prams and bicycles at the front”; “we’d leave the baby asleep in the pram outside the shop when we went in”; “the children could go out to play and no-one worried”.  These are all comments from people in their 70s or 80s, who grew up in working class areas.  Indeed, people in their 50s still remember newspaper stands at busy London underground stations which were frequently left unmanned – and left, not only with the newspapers available with a place to leave your money, but also a large tray full of coins, in plain view, so that you could place your money and take your own change!  That was in late 1960s.

Families stayed together.  People now in their 50s and over say that in their school days none of their friends came from broken homes.  It just wasn’t an issue.

There was some violence (‘skin-heads’ were feared in 1960s London), but nothing like we see now.  In fact, one young man, until recently part of a Birmingham gang, told us that his uncles – themselves in Birmingham gangs a generation earlier – had repeatedly told him off for the way he did violence.  They said “When you have decked ‘em [knocked them to the ground], the fight is over.  You have won and you leave it at that.  But today, when you knock someone down, “you stamp on them [ie, on their face] and carry on hurting them.  You shouldn’t do that”.

There was massively less pressure on children to grow up before their time and to be ‘sexualised’ before their time.  For example, you were not expected to have a boy or girl-friend until your late teens or early twenties.  For many, teenage fashion was an idea that had no relevance and climbing trees was altogether more important.

Porn was rare.  Only in 1970 did The Sun start to feature a topless model on page 3. Porn magazines came to the high street for the first time in 1971, at which point there were three of them.  A decade later, there were 50.

Shops generally took pride in offering a service to customers and would not knowingly sell goods that might fall apart the following day (nor were such goods normally manufactured).

Manifestly, things were not perfect.  There was a harshness in discipline, much more overt racism, women had far fewer opportunities and the British were much too ‘buttoned up’.

But a safer, sweeter, more stable, politer, less hyped, more positive, less cynical, more honest environment was really very nice!  It is quite an inheritance that we have lost, or are in the process of losing.

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