[Nell]

I think I'd rather live now, with antibiotics and painkillers and central heating etc. But I have the advantage of growing up in a house without central heating or a dishwasher so I really really appreciate them now!

Unless our ancestors left records, we don't really know how they felt about their lot. My family were mainly ag labs or servants. But I often feel for better off women before they were allowed to work. They must have been bored out of their minds and wearing tight corsets would have made them feel ghastly.

As for modern tower blocks where people use the stairways as loos and let their dogs mess, I don't see how that is the planners' fault. On the estate where I live - a mix of privately owned housing, social housing and council housing, there are people who have beautiful gardens and well maintained houses and others who use their front lawn as a rubbish dump.