"Lizzie, I suspect you have missed the point of punk. "England's Dreaming" by Jon Savage is a good starting place if you want a well written insider's view"


Nope, I 'got' the message, but it wasn't delivered in a way I liked.

The huge anger that Mclaren has inside him for everything and everyone, was picked up on by those who had huge anger inside them too, over Thatcher, the miners strike, etc..etc..etc..

Punk became the voice of that anger. But most of the punks didn't really have a clue about all of that. They just latched on to the 'fashion' and er...'new English culture' side of it all. From that day, to this, respect for others kinda flew out the window in my country, as those who had always wanted to put the boot in to others did exactly that, driving many young people to a dark place, filling them with anger and vitriol against so many, many things.

I get kind of incensed when people deface Churchill's statue, or verbally spit on so many of those who gave *their* lives to give the punks, etc, the freedom to behave in such a loutish way. It wasn't what many of those men and women went to war for, not at all.

Freedom comes with many responsibilities. One of those is not willfully hurting others.

What's happened since Punk has been the biggest kind of 'inverted' snobbery, in my opinion, where anyone who comes from a place that's considered 'posh' is already loathed, without any personal contact ever having taken place, or they're despised because they don't speak 'estrry' English, or don't swear, or aren't Left wing, or don't read The Socialst Worker, or don't live the 'Eastenders' lifestyle, or maybe they went to public school, or grammar school, which wasn't even their choice, but that's never even considered...etc..etc..etc.

It's no different, in my book to many of those who lived in grand houses/palaces who looked down on those they considered lesser mortals.

All who think like that, are wrong.

This hatred betweeen 'them and us' should stop. It's gone on for way, way too long, and if England is ever going to get to a good place again, then she needs her people to let go of their hatred, not hatred against the rest of the world, but hatred for their own countrymen. The English people need to stop hating each other, and come together, seeing no class, no divide, just 'we'...

I know that you can be a Lord or Lady of this land and be the most compassionate and loving person. I also know that you can be a complete and utter bastard. Exactly the same can be said for a miner, or a dustman, or a shopworker, they too are either someone to have respect for because of their compassion and love for others, or someone to avoid like the plague, because of their hatred for so many things, and so many people who they don't want in their 'box'.

People are people. We are not supposed to live in boxes. Punks put people into boxes, like so many others did and still do. I don't think the Hippies did that. They loved everyone, Love was the message there, for me at least.

Love and Unity is the way forward.

Hatred and Division is the way to hell.

And if anyone wants to read a truly magical book on England, which will have you falling around with laughter at our beautiful eccentricites, and wiping away a tear at the beauty of our country, then I can't recommend Colin Irwin's 'In Search of Albion' highly enough.