Friday, April 18, 2008

Liverpool and family values....

Its interesting to see the conservative religionists such as Anglican Extreme jump on the bandwagon with regard to the Liverpool murder. The name of the perpetrator has been common knowledge for a while up here. I used to live about 2 minutes walk away from where Rhys Jones was killed. Its a pleasant estate, not run down or poor. That has at least been acknowledged.

However, the gang warfare on the neighbouring estates has been blamed on family breakdown. I think that some of these people ought to come up to Liverpool. Far from breaking down, these families are close knit, extended, even, as is always acknowledged by the death notices when one of them dies. There are fathers on the scene - much of the criminal knowledge is learned that way. Its all too easy to come out with the usual clichés about broken families - but family values are strong enough in Liverpool's estates. Its just that there are different types of families - and different types of values. The conservative religionists, in their eulogising of 'The Family' , fail to see that structure does not necessarily mean the sort of 'values' they promote.

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