The baby boomers will go down as the worst, most selfish generation in history.

you only needed 5 "O" levels to get into a teachers training college. Now 5 GCSE's is the basic and young people, have to work for degrees and 4 A levels is a norm. No, no, you still needed 2 'A' levels to get into teacher training college

Right and wrong. You really did only need 5 O levels or equivalent for both nursing and teaching. That remained the case right through the 1980's and until the act was changed to create the (so called) all graduate profession of teaching and that was followed by nursing in the curriculum 2000 changes.

The thing is, you would not necessarily secure a place in teacher training with 5 O levels or its equivalent. It required 2 A levels at most teaching colleges ( althought they could vary that and still can, and they do as well. Thats where the "unconditional offers are coming in these days).

Not quite what it appeared.

Anyway, teacher training did not involve a degree, it was a 2 year course awarding a Teaching Certificate

That was technically true until 1980 ( in sciences) although it was changed in the late 1970's for other subjects. Its complicated as the statutory instrument is weird on that. You need to find your qualifications and see what is qualified and what is not. Further , the waters are muddied now by teach first and other initiatives.

But lets not go there.

Education was not free either. It was like the NHS free at the point of delivery. It was paid for by the tax payer. Only a small number of people got to university ( between 5% and 15% depending on whether it was the 1950's or the 1970's) . The grants were means tested. Tuition was not always "free" either and all was subject to actually performing well on the university course.

At the end of the day that small number of privileged usually very bright people were paid for by all those ( including the young people who left school at 14/15 ) who went to work and paid tax.

Today things are different and have been since 2000 when curriculum 2000 offered education to anyone who could get a place and made university places available to 50% of young people leaving school at 18. Lets face it, we cannot support that level of entitlement by grants and free tuition.

fricking boomers complaining

I quite agree with your post Trisher.
My ex BIL was a Denplan dentist of the year.He was not able to treat NHS patients well,partly because of underfunding,but also the quota system which had to be met.The NHS would rather fund a quick extraction than pay for preventative care.
I well remember the nit nurse.
Not just young people on the street,I heard of a case where mum,dad and two children lived in their car locally for a few days after losing their home.
There is a massive divide in society,not just based on the NHS and social support,but those exceptionally comfortable and those with little.
It bothers me that someone can work a full week and be low enough paid that they need to ask for additional benefits.

Am reading something about how difficult it is to break down prejudice.

Well done daphnedil!
I believe dd that you said that you are a baby boomer, and I hope that you are able to break down the prejudices of your generation and help them to realise just how selfish some of them are perceived to be by those younger than them.

I have just realised, too Devorgilla, that DH and I are not baby boomers, DH is one of the original 'single parent families' deprived of much, including a father, by the war. I was lucky enough to have a father who came back from the war but I must say our upbringings were quite deprived although we didn't realise it at the time!
Off the hook, as you say!

I see I miss being a baby boomer by 2 years. Off the hook then. Meanwhile, all you baby boomers born from 1946 - 'It's all your fault'. Or so they say.

Granny2016 denists have always had a very tenuous relationship with the NHS, have always charged for some things and continue to do so. So they cannot be regarded as a true measure of the service provided by the NHS.
The NHS was free at the point of delivery for many years and the prescription charge was an example of how the Conservatives have always attempted to undermine that service.
As examples of services that used to be provided there was a district nurse service that supported those in ill health at home, there was a schools clinic service that provided help and treatment for minor injuries and made sure things like head lice, impetigo and scabies were properly treated. The support they provided for poor families was incredible. All of these services have gone and the support network that enabled many people to move out of poverty has disappeared. Does no-one else see the numbers of young people sleeping rough and think that this was something we never saw when I was young, and feel thoroughly ashamed of a society that allows this to happen?

I voted in having lived abroad my parents,paid to educate me not only was I I tax payer for 30 years,I paid all my university fees,worked and supported my family whilst improving my self .Despite voting in I felt that there's a lot wrong in Europe especially in the unelected senior roles .I now have to wait for my pension ,gone without holidays,used charity shops,gift tokens to feed clothe and keep my family healthy.I feel quite cross that it is assumed we have had it all .

I don't need to look it up Daphnedill I live in the midst and in no way am I prejudice to benefits I have been on them once myself and thank goodness for a safety net but I am prejudice to the ways they are abused and I am very much against them when they get more than a hard worker

There is a huge chasm between those really needing help and having it pulled from them like the gov s bedroom tax and making very ill people work and those that know their way around the system and laugh their way through life doing bugger all

Trisher I don,t call it quibbling when the very workers who were paying for the NHS to be established and run,could not afford dentistry....regardless of which party brought in the charges.
The NHS was established on the backs of people who had fought a war and were working to rebuild the country.It certainly was not free.

@Jalima

There is plenty of evidence that people born around 2000 will be less well of on average than their parents.

Can't be bothered to find the evidence and not even sure it's worth it.

Am reading something about how difficult it is to break down prejudice.

I don't agree with you, BlueBelle, but can't be bothered to argue at the moment.

You should try looking up what families 'on benefits' actually receive and I know what I'm talking about too!

Of course there are some deprived kids Daphnedill always have been and always will be but I was trying to make a point that for the most part deprivation today isn't the same, obviously because there is a benefit system to give everyone a safety net if they need it Most kids today even those with a family on benefits think they are deprived if they don't have a good phone and don't tell me I don't know what I m talking about as I live in a so called deprived area

I still think this (and its almost identical thread in Chat) are wind ups or maybe even a journalist looking for source material, but there is more than a grain of truth in it
The thing is though dd that they only see the gloss, what has been written about those times from certain perspectives and not perhaps the perspective of people who may have lived through them and not found them as wonderful as they appear to be.

Free university education: Only a tiny percentage of young people were lucky enough to take advantage of it, probably only 5% of girls.
It was our parents who set up the NHS and free education. Yes we were the teachers and nurses but you only needed 5 "O" levels to get into a teachers training college. Now 5 GCSE's is the basic and young people, have to work for degrees and 4 A levels is a norm. No, no, you still needed 2 'A' levels to get into teacher training college, and if your parents could not afford to keep you for the two years of 6th form you left and got a job.
Anyway, teacher training did not involve a degree, it was a 2 year course awarding a Teaching Certificate.
The NHS did not offer such niceties as cosmetic surgery, gastric bands etc etc; it was in fact fairly basic; some of the treatments nowadays are wonderful but very costly (but thank goodness for them).

Plenty of jobs: yes, there were plenty of jobs, but they may be the type of jobs that some young people would turn their noses up at these days. Why the need to recruit people from the EU if there are no jobs?

Struggling to buy a house: when was it not a struggle?

However, we did have the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, etc - what have they got nowadays?

Also younger people don't know the origin of the "boom" here - that after the war there was a boom in the number of babies born (to servicemen coming home to their wives and girl-friends, to people who had put off starting a family becausw of the war, to people who took it for granted that they would have quite a large family as had been the way when some of them were not likely to survive babyhood)

Then when that generation was old enough to have their own fmilies, there was a corresponding boom in the birthrate, causing a further wave of baby boomers.

PS. I'm a babyboomer too - born 1955.

That works both ways, BlueBelle. Yes, I do know plenty of deprived young people. It would help if older people didn't have such a preconceived and stereotypical view of young people.

What prompts the tone of these replies is a reaction to the tone that we keep hearing so much - a scapegoat is needed, because people want everything to be someone's fault. So blame falls on one section or other of the population - and the very word "babyboomers" contains within it the word "boom". What is the opposite of boom? It is bust! So by association, babyboomers must have had the boom which must have caused the bust!

When things get better in a country, no-one goes round scattering praise, but when things get worse, they blame foreigners, the old, the young, the rich, the poor, the current government, the previous government, greedy employers, lazy employees, fifth columnists, agents provocateurs, foreign spies - whoever is being vilified in the press at the time.

I think you are quite wrong ajanela I ve no idea what age you are but I m considered a baby boomer and have had absolutely no hand outs or anything at all that the kids of today haven't had +more My mum worked all hours to send me to a fee paying school to have a better life than her but when I applied to go to university they put the qualifications up as it was 'baby boomer years' and too many applying so I didn't get in There were no gap years or treading water in those days so it was off to work I went After getting married having three children and then getting left with nothing I worked three or four different jobs to bring them up I was 50 before I got a proper profession I only own my own house because my Nan left it to me after living in council houses I ve never owned a car I don't understand why people think we ve had it easy Kids today have cars at 17 they expect to own a fully furnished house from the word go Do you know any deprived young people they go to pop concerts, drink, have foreign holidays, when they marry they have the house as they want it from word go no saving up for things
How can we all work together when someone has such a pre conceived judgement of a whole generation

@Jalima

^We must all work together however young or old we are, or how we voted.
My sentiments exactly - however, I don't think the OP would agree.^

Well, we're supposed to be the mature and wise adults. Shouldn't we be showing the lead in being role models on how to work together and understand the concerns of each age group better?

I still think this (and its almost identical thread in Chat) are wind ups or maybe even a journalist looking for source material, but there is more than a grain of truth in it.

Falconbird
DH's DF was 'missing presumed dead' and never came home. The widow's pension was a pittance.

ajanela
We must all work together however young or old we are, or how we voted.
My sentiments exactly - however, I don't think the OP would agree.

ajanela I don't think any job that either DH or I had was that secure over the years! Redundancies, changes to working conditions, closures etc etc have been going on for more years than I can remember. In 1979 DH was desperately job-hunting and we had to re-locate and pay two-thirds of our income on a mortgage. Five years of struggling but relative security - then closure and redundancy and re-location again. Five more years of security,then living apart for much of the next 20 years while DH moved around for work and I worked and stayed put for DC's education.

Nothing new nowadays as far as I can tell, but we just got on with it and didn't moan. Sorry, but it was not that easy - honestly.

Sun seeker and others I think you underestimate how younger people feel and how resentful they are about their situation. It is not a wind, I have heard them say this. They don't want hand outs to buy a house from seniors, they want a secure job where they can earn money to support themselves and there families. There is a lot of truth in what OP says.

And by the tone and rudeness of the replies I think it confirms what OP is saying, some baby boomers are not nice people. We must all work together however young or old we are, or how we voted. We all have to do our bit to get us through this situation

It is about the will to do things not about how much it will cost which is the excuse always used these days.
I agree, trisher 'where there's a will there's a way' - however, the baby boomers are not really the ones in charge any more, are they, apart from one or two very elderly politicians such as Jeremy Corbyn who is only in charge - or not - of the Labour party).

ajanela How disrespectful you are to this younger person
Yes, this younger person, not all younger people. We are the parents of younger people who are just as you describe, hardworking, striving to make the best of their lives and bringing up our DGC with the help of many of us. We are in awe of our wonderful athletes. The criticism is, I think, just an indignant retaliation to the rudeness of this one OP.

However, some young people - not ours of course! - do have a sense of entitlement and a tendency to blame other people when things do not go their way because they failed to see that they have duties too, not just expectations.

Petra, I like your style. Was it in the middle of a puddle?

These days you wouldn't even have a council flat Falconbird because there aren't any.