*shrugs*
Stig,

I wouldn't say that there's any more scum now than there were in the past - they're perhaps just a bit more visible through the media that's all.

I spent the whole of my life up to the age of 18 living in one of the least salubrious parts of the UK (Stoke on Trent). Don't get me wrong, there WERE scum there, but they were just the loud, vocal minority. There were also a great number of people there that some people would consider to be scum, but the reality was that they'd committed no greater crime than having a lack of ambition and being full of pig-ignorance. Once you looked past that, they were fairly decent people.

Until fairly recently I lived in a suburb of Birmingham that neighboured one of the most notorious Birmingham hot-spots. Once again, I couldn't really see any reason for this other than a lack of ambition, and a touch of xenophobia by some people due to its extremely high ethnic minority population.

It's just one of those things that I feel is perhaps blown out of all proportion by the media. It's not a problem that's any worse now than at any point earlier in my life in my opinion.
( rubberduck should only be used after consulting with your GP, Wed 15 Oct 2008, 8:39, Reply)