Once our beer was frothy but now it's frothy coffee. Well, fings ain't what they used t'be.
- Max Bygraves, 'Fings Ain't What They Used T'Be'

Nostalgia, as the old joke goes, isn't what it used to be.

Maybe it's something to do with the speed in which things move these days, but as 2009 drew to an end, and among all the usual end of year 'best of' lists, many media outlets were inviting their readers and viewers to get teary-eyed and reminisce about the previous decade. Heck, even here at h2g2 we were guilty of it.

But as Middle England continues to get its collective knickers in a twist about hoodies, binge drinking and the lack of bobbies on the beat, there is a yearning to return to the values of a simpler, gentler and more courteous time, a time even before even the noughties.¹

People talk a lot about a 'Golden Age', be it of television, movies, radio, automobiles or surfing. But were things ever as good as we remember them? Has nostalgia got a lot to answer for? Personally, here at h2g2 Towers we remember at time when, as children, there were Pearly Kings and Queens on every corner and, as there was no such thing as the internet, all we had to play with was our clackers.² But that's just us.

• Were things really any better in the 'good old days'? And just how far back are we talking? Do the late 1980s really count as the 'good old days'?

• Is harking back to times gone by ever a healthy thing? Is it better to live in the present rather than in the past?

• Or could today's generation learn a lot from the folks that have gone before them? Is it so wrong to hanker after a time of good old fashioned values like politeness and respect?

• And why do you think the time between events passing and the need for us to reflect on and analyse them is getting shorter and shorter? The media? Our diminishing attention spans? Alcopops?

It's over to you. Rose-tinted glasses not provided...