Saturday night at eight o'clock discovered me not at the motion pictures however at the Cinema Museum, a surprise gem near the Oval cricket ground in South London, located in a previous workhouse which was quickly home to the young Charlie Chaplin after his mom fell on tough times.
Truth be informed, I rarely venture south of the river. As Dave, from the Winchester Club, cautioned Arthur Daley: 'Lot of really wicked people' in Sarf Lunnon.
Coincidentally, the event was a one-man show by my old mate George Layton, star, director, scriptwriter, author, whose finest hour - at least to my mind - was playing Des, the dodgy vehicle mechanic in Minder.
George was reading from his collection of short stories set in the 1950s, when he was growing up in post-war Bradford. They're wonderfully composed, warm, funny, expressive, a slice of history, a working-class version of Richmal Crompton's Just William experiences.
The storylines are based upon the trials and tribulations of a boy being brought up by a single mom - a non-traditional domesticity at that time, unfortunately only too typical today. The Fib And Other Stories has actually remained in print because 1975 and discovered its way on to the school curriculum, where it stays today.
I can't help questioning, though, how often these glorious texts are utilized in class these days, in between teachers packing their pupils' little heads with stylish far-Left propaganda about 'white benefit', manifest destiny and, naturally, environment change.
The kids in the monochrome school photograph which formed the background to George's reading were certainly white, however no one could have described them as privileged. Those were the days when 'austerity' suggested living from hand to mouth, not having to opt for a basic 50in flat screen TV, instead of a 65in OLED Ultra design, and just having the ability to manage an iPhone 14 instead of the most recent all-singing, all-dancing AI variation.
Child hardship was real, bread-and-dripping, holes-in-your-shoes stuff, not dining on Deliveroo and hesitantly wearing last season's Nike fitness instructors.
Until the digital/social media transformation, kids gained their understanding mostly from books, composes Littlejohn
In the 1950s, children experienced real difficulty, not the poverty of aspiration and creativity which blights this generation, through no fault of their own. Today, kids live via their smart phones, instead of strolling complimentary and experiencing life to the full.
Until the digital/social media revolution, kids gained their understanding mainly from books. Yes, TV played a big role, as did the movies, however no place near the domination of TikTok and other apps providing instant gratification in byte-sized pieces.
And how can squinting at the latest CGI produced hit on a mobile phone a few inches broad ever compare to the type of old-school, cinema, Technicolor and Cinemascope, best-out-of-Hollywood experience commemorated at the Cinema Museum?
It can't. Just as the best pictures are stated to be on the radio, even better images can be discovered in the printed word.
Among the most depressing things I have actually read just recently was the author Anthony Horowitz regreting the truth that his 300-page books are far too long to engage the much shorter attention spans of today's children.
No wonder child, and certainly adult, literacy levels have actually plummeted amazingly. All this has actually added to the stunning revelation that white, working class students - boys in specific - are being left behind. Even Labour's Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has been required to admit they have been 'betrayed' by the modern-day schools system.
They struggle with a lack of adult involvement and following scarceness of aspiration. The white, working class young boy in George Layton's stories definitely didn't suffer any parental neglect from his domineering mum. Nor did he do not have creativity or goal.
Education was the escape of poverty. It produced significant wordsmiths like George, in post-war Bradford - and our own dear Keith Waterhouse, late of this parish, who matured in hardship in neighboring pre-war Leeds.
Literacy is the best gift we can bestow on any child. My grandmas taught me to check out before I went to school, setting me on the early road to a satisfying profession at the wordface rather than the relative drudgery of the work environment.
is considering taking his one-man show on the roadway, to small provincial theatres. I have actually got a much better idea.
If the Education Secretary desires to reverse the betrayal of white, working class kids she could begin by getting the phone and welcoming George to tour schools, reading from his short stories.
I honestly think that if they could be convinced to search for from their mobiles for an hour, they 'd be enthralled and inspired by the experiences of a young kid not that various to them, despite the range in decades.
You never understand, there might even be another Charlie Chaplin amongst them.
When they're not tasering one-legged 92-year-old men or nicking individuals for publishing hurty words on the internet, the police are increasingly taking sidelines to supplement their earnings.
Some are working as painters and designers, others as scaffolders nand delivery chauffeurs. More intriguingly, sidelines likewise consist of a DJ (PC Hammer, anyone?) and a reiki trainer, whatever that is.
My favourites are beekeeper and kickboxing coach, although the copper running a tea store has to take the biscuit.
It's likewise reported that some officers are working as grocery store checkout assistants. I don't expect there's any danger of them nicking a few thiefs.
Mind how you go.
RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: Couple in their 70s who bought a child from a complete stranger are selfish in the severe
First the frogs, now the octopuses
The prohibited migrant armada crossing the Channel daily may end up being the least of our problems. We now discover that a fleet of foreign octopuses from the Med is devouring crab stocks off the coast of Devon and Cornwall and threatening to put regional fishermen out of company.
It's bad enough French trawlers hoovering up our fish without migrant molluscs assisting themselves to what's left.
We're likewise informed that parakeets from India and Pakistan are an 'unstoppable intrusive species' having actually left into the wild and are colonising cities as far afield as Plymouth and Aberdeen. No doubt we'll be putting them up in the nearest Holiday Inn eventually.
And that's before I get to the buzzard that's been dive-bombing kids in a school play area in Romford, Essex. Where the hell did that originated from?
We have actually got enough trouble with home-grown Stuka-style pigeons without importing kamikaze buzzards.
Take Labour's 'aspiration' to spend a useless 3 per cent of GDP on defence by the year 2525 with a shovel-load of Maldon's finest. The method Rachel From Complaints is taxing the economy to death, there won't be any GDP left in a couple of years' time. And three per cent of things all is still stuff all.
AN NHS cosmetic surgeon who compared Islamist terrorists to the Nazis has actually been struck off. If he 'd stated the exact same about those of us who wish to leave the European yuman rites convention, Surkeir would have made him Attorney general of the United States.
Having recently claimed that the initial ancient Britons were black, the woke revisionists now allege the Vikings were Muslims. Don't these people ever take a day off?
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RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: White Working People Children have Been Betrayed
refugiaejl8562 edited this page 2025-06-03 18:23:20 +03:00