Perhaps it comes from growing up in Canada, with it's laissez faire attitude and a sense of 'right' which had been distilled from British roots with a dash of European flair thrown in for good measure..
But I find it disturbing to be bombarded with the oddities and sexual predilections of our celebrities. From politicians through the ranks of children's entertainers, we have had a five year parade of those named and shamed and prosecuted, for historical sexual misconduct dating back into the 70's.
Now I'm certainly not implying that such behaviour should go  unpunished.. but the relish with which the British public, clamouring that no stone to be left unturned in the search for these fossilized miscreants, reads reports from those claiming to have been the target of one public figure or another, leaves me somewhat sickened, tell the truth.. It's schadenfreude personified. 
In the gentler atmosphere of Canada, such things are recognized as horrific crimes, and those found guilty of such actions as paederasty are quietly locked away, with the victims left in relative peace and quiet to try and deal with the effects with the help of freely offered psychiatric support. There is not a running commentary on the trial of the accused, and so slavish delight expressed by the media when they're sent off to rot in jail. Just a sense of justice having been served.
In contrast, this Britain laps eagerly at daily reports of gruesome detail.. terrible suffering.. both from the victim and the now geriatric accused.
Gary Glitter has been sentenced to 14 years for historic acts of sexual abuse. This alone would have been sufficient.
But his trial, and the trials of several others, have kept the great unwashed entertained for more than 5 years now.
I say enough. This airing of filthy linen for the amusement of hoi poloi, needs to come to an end.

I do realize to expect positive reaction to this is bucking history.. such trials have been aired publicly in this country since before the case of Oscar Wilde, who by the way was sent to Reading Gaol for two years for 'gross indecency'.
We do love to see our perverts exposed.
Makes one wonder if the media is really the mirror in which we see both ourselves, and the world around us..

Now, think carefully.

What would you say, if the question 'how good do you feel about life in general' was put to you?

We have, on this island, an air of suspicion which has wafted in like a mist, falling on everyone's shoulders. There are cliques forming in many camps.

While we in Scotland have recently put political fervour behind us, for the most part at any rate, the parliamentary kettle is bubbling merrily away in England. It could be considered disturbing to watch the growing support for what used to be a marginal party with limited appeal blossom into a force which could conceivably form a substantial presence in the Commons come the 3d of this May. The United Kingdom Independence Party, or UKIP, has snatched seats in by-elections from all of the established parties, and it's leader, Nigel Farage, has graduated from a joke, to a powerful joke.

We have been told our economy is recovering; little seems to have changed as far as the ease with which the average household income stretches. We have been told being 'British' carries a responsibility by the media and David Cameron; we are told several times a week of how British football supporters have disgraced themselves abroad and at home, and of British men and women running amok. We are maintaining; we look over our shoulder guardedly. 

But never you mind..

Put on the kettle.. 

Time to get back to the simple musings of a simple mind.

It's interesting to note, that should one care to cast an eye back to that which was written as far back as 2006, or perhaps even 2005, could have been written today..
Odd how that old French saying is so often born out.. plus ca change, plus que le meme chose..

These days, when an ear is turned to other's conversations when the volume of the communication makes it impossible to do otherwise, the general tone is one of confusion and, dare one say, fear. 
The Almighty (and perhaps the almighty) knows well the pressures facing today's man on the street. The ubiquitous presence of those who would run amok; the terrorist hidden in plain sight posing as your neighbour. An economic situation which, when looked at from a birds-eye perspective, indicates a snail trail towards a faint light which we have been told is the end of the tunnel, but which offers nothing in the way of an immediate relief. The knowledge that those in education will, in all likelihood, have to leave the country to use their knowledge to gainful effect. The inevitability that those who are presently employed, will face years of deep debt before they then have to realize a diminished old age due to a diminished return on their investments in pension funds. A host of emotional taxing effects, which when listed, stretches away into the infinite.
And, this generation.. this present population, feels somewhat personally affronted..
One can add to this list of pressures the lack of knowledge of history. Knowing this has been the constant situation for all of mankind through all of it's history affords a modicum of.. perhaps fatalism is the word.

But, not to worry. 
You put on the kettle, and we'll have a nice cup of tea.

As a coda.. watch the developments at the meeting of the Eurozone Finance Ministers which starts.. officially.. at two this afternoon..
There is a draughty window open, and this house of cards is vulnerable.

Another trend which is developing throughout Europe.. notably in the UK and France.. is the 'radicalization'  of Muslim youth. I must add this is a new word to describe a new situation.
The Met has issued a BOLO on 3 young women, one of them 15, who are thought to be on their way to Syria to join IS.
Now it's not what one would call a bad thing, for youth to be interested in, and active in, their faith. However, the bastardization of the tenets of Islam by those who use the Q'ran as justification to murder innocents is beginning to work it's way into the Zeitgeist furthered by social media, and when it begins to become an issue which is turning our young into modern Brownshirts, it becomes an issue which deserves the attention of all of us.