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British society collapsing

Outside Brighton Swimming Club this morning

Most people alive will not remember this, but there was a time when beggars and tramps were rarely seen in Britain. This happy period began with the end of the war and continued until the start of the Thatcher era. Nowadays, one trips over them in every city in the land. It is a disgrace to a society with pretensions to being civilised.

Many of them naturally have problems with alcohol and other drugs but is this a cause or a symptom of their condition? My friend Laurence, a member of the local parish, is not frightened to engage with them, and what he relates should be enough to make anyone feel ashamed of this country. I am fortunate in being able to get away and shall be off in three weeks, but Britain should not be like this. This, together with the economic crisis, the two wars the country is involved in and the abortion epidemic, is evidence of the nation's moral collapse.

Here is an account of his latest encounter with a man who has been failed by every one of the so-called "care" institutions set up at vast public expense to look after such individuals, and whose safest home is Lewes prison.

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