Apologies to the forum for spitting out my dummy yesterday.....but there's only so much one can chew without swallowing.
Over 45 years ago I moved away from where I was brought up in the Midlands, whilst my family is still there, I had lost contact with school friends many had to move away in the 70's during the Midlands economic decline etc so I joined a local area facebook page a few years ago. Besides postings on old photographs of the area, and do you remember this or so and so from the 50's, 60's and 70's type posting I did manage to make contact with a few old friends and acquaintances thru the site. As many of the contributors are slightly older than myself, what struck me overtime was how poor and deprived some of the families were, when the state benefits were almost non-existent and the lengths they had to go to eg by pawning clothes on Monday to get money, only to get them out of hock on Saturday for Sunday church. Many had fond memories of living on the famous council housing estate called the 'Lost City' and recount tales of younger children still not having shoes all the time even into the 70's. Despite all of this hardship many went on to have successful careers as a result of their hard work and determination to succeed and to better their circumstances. It was a sobering reminder of where we have been and how far we have come and still how much more we need to do.
Howard made a fair point about integration and assimilation of all sections of the community, the reality unfortunately is somewhat different for many coloured and Asian people living in the UK. Many are living in Ghettos centred around poor inner city areas like Bradford. Leicester, Birmingham, London that often don't share the same opportunities and infrastructure ie quality housing, schools, hospitals as others. Having said that as Peter and Dave noted about their social environments many of us here grew up in less privileged neighbourhoods that faced economic and social hardships and disadvantages that were prevalent during our formative years. Some things never change, but we need to do more remove those inequalities from our society.
