If you could wind back the clock ....

[scottycelt]

... I am glad to see that scottie does not reject in toto the - timid - advances of Vatican II, which started almost exactly fifty years ago (16 October 1962).

Oh yes the inexplicable BANNING of the Latin Mass, vinteuil ... how could I ever forget such a wretchedly ignorant piece of clerical philistinism ...

[MrGongGong]

.. almost exactly fifty years ago .

Almost ?
or
exactly ?

[Nick Armstrong]

Almost ?
or
exactly ?

[Nick Armstrong]

Yes, very much so.

I'm inclined to agree (as a lawyer who is sometimes expected to take conditional fee cases, but who has managed to avoid it so far).

But what about - I am often asked - access to Justice for those who can't afford it?

[Nick Armstrong]

the populist notion that the opinions of the Public are, per se, 'Interesting', and to be accorded an equivalent status of Seriousness to the Judgments of the Experts.

Oh Lord! yes!

The "vox pop"...

[Resurrection Man]

Nuclear weapons, or nuclear fision/fusion generally (I've just realised that 50 years back was 1962 & I was twelve, & the nuclear bomb had been invented long before that. Oh dear. )

Well we haven't got nuclear fusion yet. However, nothing wrong with nuclear fission for energy. If we didn't have it then we'd have a few more brown-outs.

[Resurrection Man]

I'm inclined to agree (as a lawyer who is sometimes expected to take conditional fee cases, but who has managed to avoid it so far).

But what about - I am often asked - access to Justice for those who can't afford it?

Then I'd meet you half way and say a ban on all advertising of their services including SMS messages telling me that 'according to their records'.....

[Flosshilde]

Oh yes the inexplicable BANNING of the Latin Mass, vinteuil ... how could I ever forget such a wretchedly ignorant piece of clerical philistinism ...

Indeed - we mustn't have people understanding what priests are saying, must we - it would undermine the whole mystique of the church.

[PhilipT]

The euro.

The rise of all rights being labelled as 'human' rights, and thereby assumed to be innate and not contingent on the performance of duties (rather than being labelled as, e.g. 'citizenship rights').

The general shift towards quantity over quality in education: more people than ever before getting university degrees from ever more dubious institutions in ever more dubious subjects.

[vinteuil]

Almost ?
or
exactly ?

"exactly" might imply 15:24 hrs 8 Oct 1962.

"almost" might imply, O, I don't know, somewhere 1960 - 1963 ish..

I am happy here with: ... almost ... exactly,,, :

[MrGongGong]

"exactly" might imply 15:24 hrs 8 Oct 1962.

"almost" might imply, O, I don't know, somewhere 1960 - 1963 ish..

I am happy here with: ... almost ... exactly,,, :

I always (or should that be "almost always" ? ) thought it sounds a bit like "slightly pregnant"
but back on task children ..............

[vinteuil]

I always (or should that be "almost always" ? ) thought it sounds a bit like "slightly pregnant"

... you are of course right. I was merely using special pleading as an exculpation

[John Shelton]

The euro.

The rise of all rights being labelled as 'human' rights, and thereby assumed to be innate and not contingent on the performance of duties (rather than being labelled as, e.g. 'citizenship rights').

The general shift towards quantity over quality in education: more people than ever before getting university degrees from ever more dubious institutions in ever more dubious subjects.

The rise of embodiments of self-satisfied self-importance who write things like the above.

[MrGongGong]

... you are of course right. I was merely using special pleading as an exculpation

Oh dear, I am sell dom wright about matters ov grammer and ear dat oive serpent all my grammatical currant see for the rest of the year !

[teamsaint]

The euro.

The rise of all rights being labelled as 'human' rights, and thereby assumed to be innate and not contingent on the performance of duties (rather than being labelled as, e.g. 'citizenship rights').

The general shift towards quantity over quality in education: more people than ever before getting university degrees from ever more dubious institutions in ever more dubious subjects.

Well this is a fine argument, as long as you think that
a). the intake cohort 50 years ago was perfect.
b). There is no problem at all with lots of people not achieving their full academic or personal potential.