Unbelievable

This is 92-year-old Edith Brickhill – kicked in the head and beaten black and blue on her own doorstep… for just £30.
A callous thug pounced on the part-blind gran as she let her dog out at home in Moston.
He kicked and punched her in the face before snatching the cash from her purse and fleeing – leaving her battered and bleeding on the ground. (Manchester Evening News)

This is an area in which I grew up. What the hell ihas happened to our society?

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Author: tomkilcourse

A sceptical Mancunian who dislikes pomposity and rudeness.

51 thoughts on “Unbelievable”

  1. It wouldn’t happen here, not in my neighborhood, do you still live there?

    Go and sort it out, we do!

  3. No, Soutie, I live in rural France. The police have arrested a man, apparently. He will probably be served with an Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO). That’ll teach him.

  4. Tom, it is sickening. God give the lady strength to recover. But what has made you splash this picture? Are you trying to shock us? This is not an isolated case. It is all too frequent these days. Disrespect for the aged and disrespect for authority.

  6. Let’s hope someone very brawny and extremely angry gives the little scrote a taste of his own medicine.

    OZ

  9. papaguinea :

    Tom, it is sickening. God give the lady strength to recover. But what has made you splash this picture? Are you trying to shock us? This is not an isolated case. It is all too frequent these days. Disrespect for the aged and disrespect for authority.

    Yes, it should shock. If we are not shocked by this, then we are little better than the thug. I am aware that it is not an isolated case, but it must be an extreme case given the lady’s age. I was raised in Newton Heath, a district adjacent to Moston. My mother lived in Moston until her death. These were working class districts where people could walk around after dark without fear.

  10. Tom #3 – It’s on BBC North West as I write. A man has been released on police bail pending enquiries and Mrs. Brickhill is understandably scared witless. Her family are appealing for information.

    OZ

  11. The trouble is that the people are complicit. They refuse to vote for the small parties that might well just DO something about it. None of the big three will because to do so necessitates leaving the EU and its overarching mandate.
    A country needs its own sovereignty to change its own laws.

  13. “…….What the hell ihas happened to our society?……..”

    Liberalism, Socialism call it what you want.

    I cycled into the village yesterday to pick up a prescription and post a letter. My trip coincided with the decanting at local children from the school bus. In the main they were foul mouthed and scruffy, the boys looked like embryonic drop outs and the girls like they should be on ‘duty’ at Kings cross. Maybe we do need more immigrants.

  15. It’s mindless, brutal and utterly sickening; probably exactly as Donald says, drugs, alcohol or both.

    The fabric of our society, Tom has been disintegrating for some time now, I don’t think Socialism is entirely to blame but it didn’t help.

    A huge underclass with very little education to speak of, no prospects and dependent of benefits, the breakdown of the family unit, lack of respect for authority, and etc, have also played their part.

  16. One of the busiest railway stations in Victoria, “Dandenong” is also the most dangerous, knifings, robberies, mugging of the elderly, etc .. People like the one who bashed this lady sit right outside the station by the ticket office and virtually rob everybody as they buy their train tickets.

    The police drive past, too scared to stop 😦 It is never time for a revolution but I think it is about time something was done about this drug and alcohol problem. Jail sentences at least.

    Rehabs don’t work, how could they when the stuff is available to them as soon as they leave the centres, drug laws don’t work because all they do is send them to rehabs.

    Desert Jails is what we require. dry them out … to the bone!

  17. I didn’t realise there were “no go” area in Australia, Lao, but thinking about it, I dare say there are and always have been. I don’t think this sort of thing is restricted to the UK.
    It happens in large cities worldwide, but is less common in small towns or rural areas.

  21. Jan – For once the Spanish ‘El Cuchillo’ sounds so much better than the Portuguese ‘A Faca, with the hard ‘c’. Without thinking, I said last year during a barbie, “Hey Mum, pass me that faca over here”. The poor Great-She-Wolf nearly fainted on the spot. 😦

    OZ

  23. Having said that, Mr Hogan technically is carrying an ‘arma branca’, a hand-held kife as a weapon, and to which Donald might also be referring as opposed to a butter knife. My Spanish isn’t that good.

    OZ

  24. A huge underclass with very little education to speak of, no prospects and dependent of benefits, the breakdown of the family unit, lack of respect for authority, and etc, have also played their part.

    Strangely enough there has always been a “A huge underclass with very little education to speak of [and] no prospects”. It’s making that an ‘excuse’, along with the “poor deprived childhood” mentality that has caused the “lack of respect for authority”.

    The “poor deprived” children don’t know what deprived is – I’d like to dump the lot of them (along with psychologists and sociologists) somewhere like Indonesia or India for them to really know what deprivation is.

    Mind you, I also think the “lack of respect for authority” is brought about by the fact that many of those in “authority” don’t deserve much respect and certainly a good half of the laws they pass don’t deserve respect either.

  25. Nope, I’ll take that back. Bearsy’s clip is talking about ‘Meteme un cuchîllo en el corazon para morir’, so we ain’t talking butter knives here.

    OZ

  26. No, Boadicea, I disagree, there hasn’t always been a huge underclass with no prospects. Education or a trade was the way out for some, and there was not the cushioning effect of the benefit system which made employment unnecessary to having somewhere to live, eat, TV and etc. The so called Middle Class has grown dramatically in the last thirty years or so.

    The poor deprived children probably have poor deprived parents. They expect everything for nothing, because that is the example set by their parents. It is a difficult spiral to break.

  31. Araminta – you appear to equate “the underclass” with the “Middle Class”. If so, I find this “passing strange”. 😕

  33. I think I’m going of topic here but …. Uruguay is the last nation on earth in which knife “duels” between men are still allowed and quite legal. Provided both men are blood donors they may kill each other with impunity.

    Many Uruguayans over there carry what is known as “El Facon” a 10 inch curved knife. 🙂

  34. No, I didn’t equate them at all, Bearsy.

    I suggested that in relatively recent times members of the “underclass”, with the benefits of education and increased prosperity have joined the ranks of the “Middle Class”.

    The “underclass” to me, comprises those who do not work, have never worked or have no intention of ever working. I don’t include those who have been employed but are now unemployed due to genuine disability, the economic downturn or similar.

  37. OK, fairy nuff. But I must confess I do not understand; I’m sure it is my failing, but I don’t.

    On the other hand, I do understand grammar, and shall correct your lapse for you. 😎

  38. For OZ – My Facon. Made in Japan, similar to a mini-katana, my Dad left it to me in his will, I’m very proud to own it, that is real snake skin and the blade is hand made, all the trimmings are real made of silver, very old, if the cut don’t kill the infection will 🙂

  41. Bearsy :

    OK, fairy nuff. But I must confess I do not understand; I’m sure it is my failing, but I don’t.

    On the other hand, I do understand grammar, and shall correct your lapse for you. :cool:

    Thank you, Bearsy, I’ve missed my antipodean spell-checker and syntax corrector. 🙂

  45. OZ – We pronounce it “Fakkon”, I read the link, mine would be a “pérfuro-cortantes” type, something along the lines of a cut/slash/stab sword-like “defensive” weapon.

    Mine would be illegal in Uruguay because it is 14 inches instead of 12, but few would care, only the very old “gauchos” carry them now, everybody else carries an Uzi or an M16 😦

  46. Jeez, Donald! Just seen your link. That looks more like a ceremonial Samurai sword than the common kitchen knives our home-bred scumbags carry.

    OZ

  47. OZ – Like I said, “Mini-Katana”, Katana is the name for a Japanese sword, you can buy virtually identical copies anywhere, mine however has the distinction of having the makers name engraved on the blade and the end of the handle. worth a mint.

    Always said it’d be great for ceremonial executions 🙂

  48. Donald – Trust the Uruguayans to come up with a ‘cut/slash/stab’ “defensive” weapon. 🙂

    Nighty night.

    OZ

  51. If I might cut across the discussion on knives, I first heard the term ‘underclass’ in the seventies. When I was a youth, in Manchester, we were called the ‘working class’, and we did. There was no shortage of jobs, people lived in families, and there was ample accommodation to rent for those not in families. There was always some violence between different sets of youths, but attacks on elderly women or someone with a disability were virtually unheard of. Now, they are not even rare.

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