Quite disturbing

[Julie noted]

I am becoming depressed. Pass a large G & T. 
We have a police force with a history of underhand dealings and currently under investigation for 'new' offences;
we have local politicians that care more for their 'bottom line' than the people they are supposed to represent;
we have teachers that 'massage' exam results, in order to stay high in the Govts. figures;
we have bankers that swindle and lie over financial probity in order to maintain multi million pound bonuses;
we have doctors on over £120,000 and £60,000 pension going on strike (or at least stating they are badly done to);
we have dentists claiming payments for work not carried out...some even on patients that have been dead years;
The Catholic church have kept quiet (hidden away) abuses to children by its priests;
Tell me, where does it all end?
What is going on in the UK?
Why have we got to this state?
Please don't say 'blame the Tories'.
Mandelson even said he has no problem with people getting stinking rich.
bliar is now 'stinking rich'.
brown is 'earning' over a £1m a year, talking on how to run a successful country!!!
So it's not 'the Tories' per se...it's deeper than that.
Who CAN we trust anymore...I'm depressed. 

[steveL]

Democracy only works if people are involved. The ancient Greeks understood this and made attendance at public debate compulsory - we can't even get people off the couch and away from the TV to vote. Nature abhors a vacuum and if the oportunity is there to manipulate the system, there will always be those ready to do so. Actually, in this country it's a bit worse than that in that other people have noticed that the great unwashed can be easily distracted by pandoring to their more basic instincts. It started with Murdoch's Page 3 and pretty soon we had a constant dumbing down of everything around us: TV, Newspapers, Education, Movies etc. So have seen the rise of the celebrity culture, violent computer games, reality TV and junk food; Bread and Circuses for the masses.

If you want someone to blame then look in the mirror - tempting as it might be to blame others; the politicians, the bankers etc -  I'm afraid that ultimately it's our own fault for being so passive and allowing it to happen. Perhaps there was something on TV at the time.

[no6bus]

well with regards to local politicians you are correct

now what about all the other points

[Vincent]

"If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep you are richer than 75% of this world"

"If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in your pocket, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy"   

"If you have your own computer, you are part of the 1% in the world who has that opportunity"   

"If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the many who will not even survive this day"   

"If you have never experienced the fear in battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of 700 million people in the world"

Cheer up Julie

"If you can attend a church without the fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death you are envied by and more blessed than three billion people in the world."

"If your parents are still alive and still married you are very rare"   

"If you can hold your head up and smile, you are not the norm, you're unique to all those in doubt and despair"

"If you can read this message, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all" 

[George]

Vincent you won't fit in on HTH you appear to have a blocked bile duct 

[for fawkes sake]

Well that's a real dampener on anyone with apirations for themselves or their family but a Godsend to any politician. Why should anyone want to better themselves when we are all so much better off than others in the Third World.
Tell THAT to the Bankers....

[Stig of the Seaton Dump]

If so few people own computers, why do I get all those e-mails from Nigeria ?

I read recently that more people in the world have mobile phones than toilets !

On a separate but depressing point ..when ever I speak to people with suggestions about how things should or could be better
I get shot down for knocking the town and told to sling my hook.

If we are not critical of the environment and people around us, things will never improve.
Could that be what some people really want ! 

[Julie noted]

Vincent; I thank you for your somewhat uplifting post.
However, if you would care to read mine again, you will note that I am not complaining about what I have/own whatever.
I am passing comment on the people in this country that we should be able to trust and 'look up to'.
If you can't trust the clergy, politicians, police, teachers, doctors, dentists and bankers, just who CAN we trust?
Far too many of them are 'on the make', one way or another.
But thank you for trying to lift me out of the dumps.
Don't bother, the G & T works wonders