When did the blight settle on Blighty?
Is Old Blighty (Britain) going to the dogs? Well, that seems a common view of British expats who live abroad.
Such is their dislike of foreigners that they choose to live in foreign countries. Was Britain of the 1950s some idyll? I remember well the Teddy Boys. They were not of a cuddly type. The bicycle chain was a weapon of choice. In those days laws were made outlawing long-bladed knives and switchblades.
Of course the razor gangs must not be forgotten, or the “Glasgow smile” (slashes made on both sides of the face from the lips up). Talking of gangs, the Krays are not to be forgotten. The twin brothers Ronnie and Reggie Kray were gangsters who were the foremost perpetrators of organised crime in the East End of London during the 1950s and 1960s.
In earlier years London saw the battle of Cable Street. Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists, sent thousands of marchers dressed in uniforms styled on those of his blackshirts through the East End, which then had a large Jewish population. It seems the ghost of Mosley and his sympathisers is still on the march.
Ian Martin
