Britain is a country where old men wallow in a nostalgic vision of a past which didn't exist

Old men in Britain might have received a viral e-mail entitled :  'Congratulations to all my friends  and family who were born in the 1940's, 50's, 60's and 70's  ! ' http://old.tenerifeforum.com/showthread.php?t=27936&page=1 It goes on to marvel that they survived, despite having : *   mothers who smoked and/or drank. *  houses made of asbestos... *  taken aspirin, ate blue cheese, raw egg products, loads of bacon and processed meat, canned tuna.  *  baby cots  covered with bright coloured lead-based paints. *   no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets. *  ridden bikes with no helmets or shoes and risked hitchhiking. *  rode in cars without seat belts or air bags. *  drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. *  no pizza shops, McDonalds, KFC, Subway or Nandos. *  were unable to be reached all day and were O.K.  It goes on to fold in : shops which closed at 6.00pm and weekends; playing outside all day long;  go-carts made from old prams; tree houses, air guns and catapults on 10th birthdays; teachers who hit  with canes and gym shoes; bullies who ruled the playground at school ; no Playstations, Nintendo Wii, X-boxes,  video games , 999 channels on SKY,  video/dvd films, mobile phones,  personal computers, Internet or Internet chat rooms. And the punchline : We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL! And YOU are one of them! CONGRATULATIONS! You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good. And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were. The e mail elicited a response from Catherine Bennett in the 'Observer' today entitled : Nostalgic for the 50s? Let me give you a history lesson The anonymous author of the viral email eulogising the good old days seems to have a very bad memory I found myself agreeing with Catheirine Bennett the 54 year old author when she said : 'Only someone very unsettled by the present could look back, in longing, on upbringings in the 40s, 50s or 60s that featured, for huge numbers, cold, illness, dirt, outside lavatories, pain, shameless bullying, bigotry, unending domestic drudgery, coal fires, hand-washing, hideous food, unending trudges to and from school, the 11+, abject secondaries, snobbery, corporal punishment, teachers who might be any or all of sadistic, lecherous, useless and idle, sexual ignorance, disapproval of difference, fear of pregnancy, illegal abortions and, to a degree that is today unimaginable, crushing boredom, occasionally relieved towards the end by Carry On! films or – with similarly lubricious commentary – Miss World'.