GOOD MORNING FROM LONDON 

Readers of this Column are Baby Boomers+++ who were born in the years following the end of World War II. Some lived through the war but most are born post 1945. Few of us experienced the Blitz or danced in the streets on Victory in Europe Day on 8 May 1945.

It was a time for rejoicing. Hostilities had ceased though the War in the Far East continued until the atom bombs fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and triggered the surrender of Japan. The rejoicing was tempered by the substantial loss of life and the destruction of homes and cities. Many families celebrated Victory and the end of the war but many families mourned their losses as well. Victory is preferred to defeat but there is a cost.

Most of us were too young to recall the day that Winston Churchill announced the surrender of Germany but we may recall the 1950’s – rationing; the Light Programme and Listen With Mother (Home Service); the reliance on the radio in the pre-TV age; seaside holidays; school satchels; winning the Ashes; Maureen Connolly and Lew Hoad at Wimbledon; the Brylcream Boy – Denis Compton – at Lords and Highbury; sharpened pencils and rubbers; custard with everything. We all have recollections. Some saddened by loss and others stirred by birthday celebrations.

We had it good. Life was stable, Inflation was low, Unemployment was low. Gradually rationing was removed, and bananas and asparagus appeared in the shops to remove the monotony of spam and sago. Life in retrospect appeared uncomplicated. We studied, we holidayed, we went to the Cinema regularly. We did Bob-A-Job and collected for Dr Barnardo’s. We did O Levels and A Levels and Universities beckoned for higher education.

Life was not perfect but we did not have drugs, or gender issues or depressions. Maybe Harold Macmillan was right when he said in 1959 “You’ve Never Had It So Good”. There was crime, flick knives, and Teddy Boys. There was also the Whisky A Gogo in Soho, the Hammersmith Palais and weekly visits to the Odeon or the Gaumont. Yes – there was snow and fog and smog but there were also open-air swimming pools, cricket squares, weekend drives into the countryside and fruit picking in the Autumn.

Just memories? Not quite. There is a point to be made and it does depend on whether you belong to the “My Glass is Half Full (optimism) or My Glass is Half Empty (pessimism)”. There is a case for concluding that the lives of our children today are more challenging compared with our own lives and that maybe we Baby Boomers+++ are the last of the fortunate generations.

It is an audit. It is plusses and minuses. It is a balance. In many ways things are better today. People can travel and follow life styles of

their choice in many different destinations. There is help and assistance available at the press of a button and the internet is ever-available to answer our queries or quests for answers to difficult questions. There is certainly More available today and we certainly had Less available yesterday.

But is More necessarily a good thing? – Is there too much choice? Are there too many options with work and life style? Is there too much experiment with personal relationships? Is the surge in the number of professional counsellors to advise on personal crises evidence of a much more complicated life? And maybe the current generation starting up the career ladder will experience as many obstacles as opportunities in the hitherto uninterrupted upward curve to a better life.

MEDIATION CONUNDRUM IS ON THE AGENDA

GRAHAM PERRY

GRAHAM PERRY