Tia

[Letters]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-19214964

:rolleyes:

I'm not saying they're a chavvy family, but her grandmother's boyfriend is 37.

JeremyKyletastic

[Joker]

It's a bit harsh to bring their "chaviness" into it, as if it's a determinant of this sort of behaviour. I know you didn't necessarily mean that, but there is this attitude especially in the media, where tragedies like this somehow become representative of poor, working class communities living right at the bottom of society. When Madeline McCann went missing, no one said that poor irresponsible parenting was a common trait in middle class families. And yet when Shannon Matthews went "missing", you say so many negative comments about the Dewsbury council estate on which she was brought up, with the implication that these people are somehow predisposed to not sharing the same values that the middle class have.

Acts of such evil can and have been committed by people in all communities.

[V-Pig]

Like Owen Jones said, this is about as representative of the poor as Harold Shipman is of GPs.

Also, the rich are better at hiding their shame because they live in isolated houses.

Also, from SHERLOCK HOLMES of all people:


"Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these dear old homesteads?"
"They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside."
"You horrify me!"
"But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser."
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892)
Sherlock Holmes in "The Copper Beeches" (Doubleday p. 323)

[V-Pig]

I guess that's more about country vs town than rich vs poor, but it's still an awesome quote.

Sherlock :bow: