This book does not claim to be a fully researched history nor is it an autobiography or a memoir although personal experience is invoked at intervals to illustrate the narrative from a sometimes participant observer. It can more accurately be described as a polemic and at times the language is vitriolic for which I make no apology. I am genuinely angry as well as sad about how the educated elite of my generation, the baby boomers, have transformed our country for the worse. The first part of the book examines through the prism of my northern working class background our inheritance and the...

This book is not a scholarly work of history, nor is it truly a memoir or an autobiography, as I am under no illusions that my life merits that kind of treatment. My standpoint is that of the participant observer, and the backdrop is provided by the proud communities of Blackburn and Darwen, where my family lived, where I was educated, and where I worked before moving on to make my own way in life. I am sure that the experiences I describe will resonate with readers in many other once prosperous industrial areas. The key theme of this book is what is what like to grow up in working class...