The Floral Clock & Riots in Slow Motion.

Tina said this morning that she misses the Floral Clock that used to adorn the centre of Weston-super-Mare. It was wonderful; the hands were also flowers as were the face and numbers; it was a work of art. It is not budget restrictions that cause the cancellation of this great tourist attraction and cause for civic pride. Vandals and thugs would wreck it over-night. What we have are the riots in slow motion but it is the same thing.

Here is the recent view of a New Zealander in a letter to the Daily Telegraph - it bears out what I am saying.

SIR – After visiting Britain, I felt moved to compile a list of visible signs of how it has changed in recent years.

1. Railway waiting-rooms, once cosy and well furnished, are now utilitarian, with furniture vandal-proof and screwed down.
2. Public toilets resemble a prison cell, with everything made of steel.
3. Cricket pavilions now have no glass windows.
4. Children are taken to school by car, for safety’s sake.
5. Shops have a security guard.
6. Bottles of spirits in supermarkets are fitted with a security device.
7. In town centres on Friday and Saturday nights, it is not uncommon to see broken bottles and urination on pavements.
8. Graffiti, the hallmark of decay, appears on any surface within reach.
9. Steel shutters are fitted on ordinary shops, not just jewellers.
10. City-centre churches are converted into nightclubs.
11. Tombstones are desecrated.
12. Litter is everywhere, routinely jettisoned from cars.
13. Lay-bys bear burn marks where joy-riders have torched a stolen car.

Britain is not alone in facing this civic brutalism, but the country once used to be the epitome of civilised behaviour.

Brandon Holman
Wellington, New Zealand