One of the very few advantages of age is that you can look back to when things were “different “.
I remember when there were very, very few beggars in Newcastle.
One was a blind veteran, playing an accordion, dressed in a shabby, but clean suit complete with his medals.
The place he stood, outside Fenwicks on Northumberland street is now occupied by drug addicts and Romanian illegal immigrants with their hands out.
I was too young to give to the blind veteran, but my parents did, and had a chat with him, I very much doubt they would fund the lifestyles of his modern counter