WELL-WRITTEN and researched article in one of the more responsible national tabloids sought to shed light on the alarming decline in social behaviour in this country of ours.

Nowhere, it seems, is safe from random outbreaks of violence, domestic and public. And far more frequently than ever, women are the victims.

The article contained some very interesting theories which merited serious consideration the more one read into them.

It was commenting on a report, 'Gentility Recalled,' commissioned by the Social Affairs Unit. The think-tank was of the opinion that the collapse of good manners could pose a greater threat to society than crime. Anyone who has been subjected to loutishness - and there cannot be many who HAVEN'T - will agree. The trouble is that young people are growing up in an environment where traditional family values, good manners, courtesy and tolerance are disappearing quicker than car radios and hub caps!

The report declares unequivocally that women are more at risk because traditional respect by men has been eroded by the tide of feminism.

Now it would be stretching the point just a tad too far to blame all society's ills on women's lib but there can be little doubt that the scramble for equality has rebounded on the fair sex. Men of my advanced years still regard women as the weaker sex. I don't see that as patronising or demeaning and no, ladies, I wouldn't like to give birth, thank you very much.

Nor do I see opening doors, giving up a seat, and treating women with respect as questioning my masculinity or a sign of weakness. Simple good manners, yes.

No less an authority than former Oxford don, Rachel Trickett, said in the report that feminists who demanded equality had realised too late the effects of removing the protection gentlemanly manners once afforded.

This loss of respect between men and women is not an isolated ill; the young dismiss the old as bores, conveniently forgetting that were it not for the sacrifices made between 1939 - 45, they wouldn't have the freedom they abuse so outrageously now.

While accepting that the growing gulf between men and women has a lot to do with our problems, there are other contributory factors, not the least being the wholesale abdication of parental responsibility and the proliferation of marital breakdowns.

So many children are growing up in one-parent families, many struggling under almost impossible financial restrictions, that hostility very quickly replaces tolerance. Respect for teachers and the law becomes something to deliberately ignore. There are no standards to live up to when you are at the bottom!

Depressing as it undoubtedly is, the 'Gentility Recalled' report merely adds to the voices warning about the threatened collapse of all acceptable standards of behaviour. Will it be any more effective? I very much doubt it.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.