Liverpool opinions
Working on the chain gang - The age of innocence
By John
Williams
The era of the sixties is now being blamed by Tony Blair's cronies for almost every ailment known to society. Yep, according to them, it was the left leaning liberals, the Beatles and almost anyone who took Scott Mackenzie's advice and wore some flowers in their hair that sowed the seeds of evil which flowered and bloomed into this fractured, fractious society.
This ability to obscure and deflect from his own troubles is Blair's forte. Perhaps his birthname is a misprint, and should read Blur. Whatever. I don't want to create a list of the evils that disappeared in the sixties, Polio etc, but rather I would like to a long held pet theory of mine that the breakdown in society was aided and abetted by those civic authorities who, in the perennial quest to find ways of increasing profitability, eliminated a certain class of workers by the thousand.
My idea, which had been incubating for decades, burst into life about six years ago when I was travelling into Liverpool with my wife and two children, aged twelve and seven. Because I smoked we were sitting on the top deck of the bus, which was largely empty except for four adolescents; two boys and two girls.
I was seated some distance away from my nicotine phobic boys and so appeared to be alone. Whether my seeming solitude emboldened them I can't say, but before I'd smoked half of my cigarette I was aware that the air wasn't just slightly blue with smoke, but also with some of the foulest language I'd ever heard.
My wife turned to me and I could tell by her expression that she wanted me to keep my thoughts to myself. Blabbermouth that I am I turned to the group and told them in no uncertain terms that if they persisted with their obscene recital I would personally conduct them off the bus.
They were so shocked at the vehemence of a gray beard that they did indeed desist. However, when we left the bus my wife pointed out that I couldn't go on risking a violent confrontation, and that in future I should forego my smoking and sit downstairs. I agreed, and as did so I was transported back to the days when I was a bus conductor, and as such actually possessed the legal entitlement to eject trouble makers from the vehicle.
In those days any school children who decided to scream and shout at passers by from the safety of the top deck very quickly found themselves facing an ultimatum; talk, or walk. Thus the chain of discipline between home and school was maintained. Then the transport authority, decided to introduce one man buses, which meant the total elimination of the guards, or conductors as they were better known. For some time the buses were still trouble free, because the one man vehicles consisted of one deck and so the driver was able to maintain his control of the younger passengers. However, in time the double decker buses were manned by a lone driver.
Within a year the top decks of buses, out of sight of the drivers, were largely occupied by swearing, spitting adolescents who had heard the link snap and took full advantage of the break in the chain. In the following years older people gave up trying to cover for the council's mistake and instead piled uncomfortably into the downstairs area. The loutish behaviour spilled over at both ends of the journey between school and home.
Not everyone was unhappy though because the bus companies had halved their wage bill and the yobboes sang hallelujah; while many people, including myself, turned more and more to private transport. So now we have overcrowded roads, little public transport and a generation of fully qualified Yobbisma, many fuelled by cheap booze, courtesy of Blair's beloved globalised alcohol pushers who are ably assisted by gangsters selling drugs like heroin, which in the reviled sixties were dispensed legally over the chemist's counter, somewhat reducing the addict's desire to rob and maim in order to get a fix. We can't repeal the sixties so why not stop using them as a an excuse Tony? Deal with the present. I dare you!
28th july 2004