Britain: The Home of Bad Manners

Allotments are without doubt one of the most serene places to be, provided, that is, they are situated a reasonable distance from any sources of annoyance.
Here in our little allotment in Sough Gloucestershire in the Dis-United Kingdom my best mate Nosher and I have the privilege of enjoying this serenity as we work on our little plots side by side in the warm spring sunshine.
Much of the rest of Britain is, however, far from serene these days.
'Apparently ITV has commissioned a poll that shows that bad manners are the biggest social problem facing Britain today' said Nosher as we settled into our deckchairs outside his shed for a glass of fruit juice.
It was early afternoon and life felt good: we were tired after the morning's gardening, and our little world was a nice place to be.
Apart from the birds singing in the trees no other sounds could be heard.
'Well, I can't say I'm surprised' I said 'Britain has become a very unfriendly place over the past ten years or so.'
'Apparently' Nosher went on 'a majority of the people surveyed admitted that they were the cause of anti-social behaviour. Since over half questioned felt that bad manners were a problem in society, it means that some of those complaining also admitted to being part of the problem.'
'The decline is pro-social behaviour has its roots in the collapse of parenting skills in our society' I said 'we now have a generation of children many of whose parents never had any effective parenting, and who are now themselves producing children at a very young age. The great social engineering experiment of the liberal left has failed: simply giving people social welfare benefits without also requiring that they conduct themselves in a civilised manner and teach the same to their children was always bound to fail. We have become a nation of slobs, yobs and thugs.'
For a while we sat in silence enjoying the peace, broken only by the birds singing in the trees.
Our allotment truly is a place of escape, a quiet haven where the ignorance, stupidity, banality and brutality that characterises the Dis-United Kingdom can be left behind, if only for a few hours.
'And it's not just the youngsters' said Nosher 'apparently adults are just as bad, spitting, swearing, pushing in, shouting, driving inconsiderately, and so on. The reason this survey sounds so convincing is because it describes the reality so many of us have to put up with every day.'
'It just goes to show' I said 'that the Enlightenment idea that each person has a core of goodness inside which will be released by the power of reason and mass education is nonsense. I believe that people are born with the capacity for good and bad, and which manifests itself most is likely to be the result of how they are treated and the underlying personality and character. Right now, after several decades during which the value of good manners has been totally ignored by politicians and many parents and most schools, our society is reaping the consequences.'
'Things can only get worse' said Nosher dispiritedly.
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