You help please with some words

[JonRB]

I grew up in the 70's on a large council estate in the North West of England. The aforementioned estate was full of proud working class tenants. Proud people that kept their houses and gardens neat & tidy. My parents still live there and when i visit i am disgusted at what the estate has turned into.

I need your help to reply to a post i read recently slagging the place i grew up in. The person or persons were obvioulsy refering the estate as it is today with no respect for how it use to be. I would imagine lots and lots of estates up and the country and turned out the same.

Please could someone put a few paragraphs together covering the following subjects

Working Class people that are no longer working class (because they no longer work !!)
The decline is the education system and discipline in schools and the rise of lawlessness.... anit social behavour etc.
The social and economic reasons for the state of some council estates today........ a freind of mine often refers to the kids of today on these estates as Thatchers Grandchildren !!!

Please try and write it like it has been written in The Guardian....... i want to really **** the person off that wrote the post or completey confuse them !! LOL

Cheers

[JockSporran]

Working class people (like my grandparents) used to live together in good neighbourliness, and would look after gardens and each other. All sorts of changes have happened in society since then. Antisocial, selfish behaviour has become accepted.

Modern journalist snobbery doesn't help the good people in the housing schemes who try to make neighbourhoods work, but Thatcherism contributed to modern snobbery. I have met working class folk who have bought property and sublet it. They not only let down their class, they contribute to social problems such as drugs etc.

[Lonnie]

I grew up in Dagenham, in the 50s, then, it was the lagest council housing estate in Europe, if not the world,

At that time, it housed the overflow from the East End of london, the people were proud of their houses, kept them spick and span, and had a good community spirit. its mostly private now, and thats the problem.

Right to buy your council house, precipitated the downfall of the purpose of them.

Now they are used mainly to house problem families who have not the will to drag themselves out of the gutter, and live mainly on state handouts.

Personally, I hate the term 'Working Class People', because in my view, everyone who works, regardless of status, is working class.

[Myriad2112]

You had it easy - we used to live in a skip!

[rabbitygirl]

JockSporran is right. But in some cases there is more to the degradation of council estates.

I have experienced the sudden and shocking degrading of the road where I once lived. This was due to the council, one amongst many, handing over their properties to housing associations.

If you have a housing association which handles tenants from different areas you will have those causing trouble in one area moved to another where they can make a fresh start and no one knows their history. Our road, and area, was the subject of a social experiment. Put trouble makers in a decent community and they are bound to mend their ways. Wrong.

As I have mentioned on AB before, in a short space of time, I saw the dregs of humanity move into my once nice road of council and private homes. Drug dealers (one of whom had his car written off care of callers bearing baseball bats) ex travellers, young men threatening gun violence and a contingent of pavement riding motorcyclists.

Result. Police in the street more frequently (although ineffectively I can vouch) intimidation and rudeness to neighbours, untended gardens becoming dumps. People living contentedly for decades suddenly wanted to move.

I would never consider an ex council property again, however nice the area. The social experiment had the opposite effect. It took me over 50 viewings to sell my home. One look at the neighbours sent most hurrying away.

[fletcher.5]

OK John B.
The term working class as it was known has been diluted to the under class which is Thatchers legacy.
Her policies destroyed communities with the promises of owning your own property, if you could afford it.
Then she put millions on the dole, when you went to sign on you were given a hard time because you were not employed, or were not looking for something that did not exist.
Because of this situation, the working class consider themselves to be middle class

[im stuck]

Rabbitygirl
What utter snobbery, I live in a housing association flat, and I and my neighbours (other than the oap's) all work in respectable jobs, keep our homes/surroundings clean. If you enter the real world, not everyone can afford to buy, and the council doesn't cater for all (especially if you go to work)