I owe Tony Price (and others who have commented on my previous post) an apology for the factual inaccuracies in what I previously said about Harrow in 1974. Of course it had more than just Debenhams, but its retail offer was frankly very poor until the St Ann's Centre was opened in 1987 and the St George's in 1996. In 1974, any Harrow resident wanting to buy goods from HMV, WH Smith, M and S, BHS and quite a few others had to go to Watford or the West End. Today they don't ; Harrow has all of these and more. I made the mistake of expecting not to be taken literally - very naive on my part.The point also needs to be made that, whilst Harrow's population was largely white British in 1974, the Ugandan Asians were ariving in significant numbers even then, and the borough's ethnic population grew in leaps and bounds over the subsequent two decades. But far from going down-market, its shops improved dramatically and the town centre is due to get a new library. Though not perfect (it does have its share of £1 shops) it is thriving. My post was not an anti-white post ; it was an anti-nostalgia post. As a white British person I have been in a minority in Kenton since moving there in 1989 but it bothers me not one iota. But the thought of turning the clock back 35 years frightens the hell out of me. Imagine going back to 25% inflation, getting electricity on only 3 working days a week, constant industrial strife, "discovery" methods of learning in secondary schools, "Quartic" steering wheels, the back window of your car popping out when you jacked it up to change a wheel. Tony, you really need to look at these things in the round. Now in 2009 we may be in a credit crunch but we ae in a deflationary rather than inflationary situation. The quality of learning on our schools is leagues better than in the '70s. And although we get the odd strike on the tube, industrial strife is far less common than 35 years ago. We communicate via email as on this forum, in 1974 that was too advanced even for STARSHIP ENTERPRISE. And my 2006-vintage car starts first time every time, has airbags, alloy wheels and a CD player and a nice round steering wheel (OK, so it does have a Daihatsu badge on it). I have lived for almost 5 decades on this earth - '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s and 2000s and the one I would least like to go back to is the '70s, without question. It was an era of backward attitudes, false dawns and missed opportunities. Time to de-invent the Tardis and move forward.
David Lawes ● 6369d