'Man is remembered by his deeds'. Knute Nelson

When did the term 'do-gooder' become an insult? I imagine almost immediately if the programme 'Ian Hislop's Age of Do Gooders' is anything to go by:

http://channelhopping.onthebox.com/2010/11/29/ian-hislops-age-of-do-gooders-review-have-i-got-do-gooders-for-you/

This was a very interesting and informative programme and well worth watching.

As do-gooders go Wilberforce is a good one to start with and known to most of us because of his work to abolish slavery but how many of us outside the worlds education and medicine know about Robert Owen or Thomas Wakely. I suspect the term 'bloody do-gooder' was used to describe Owen by the women whose homes he demanded be inspected for cleanliness. But how ahead of the time was his vision for education? And Wakely? The Lancet was the blog of its day, anonymous and revealing.
http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-owen.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Wakley

Octavia Hill would certainly fit in with the coalition government 2010. 'We have made many mistakes with our alms: eaten out the heart of the independent, bolstered up the drunkard in his indulgence, subsidised wages, discouraged thrift, assumed that many of the most ordinary wants of a working man's family must be met by our wretched and intermittent doles.'

http://www.infed.org/thinkers/octavia_hill.htm

Hill, like Owen, set up inspections of tenants housekeeping skills. It seems working class women of those times were a dirty lot, lacking the luxury of washing machines (or, in some cases, running water) vacuums, electricity, Domestos or maids. But unlike Owen Hills inspectors and rent collectors were female. These 'Hills Angels' gave advice to the women they collected rent from and, as Hislop observed, acted as early social workers.

I look forward to the rest of this series and it was good to see Hislop out of his HIGNFY seat although without the studio makeup his complexion is not a pretty sight. Heaven knows what it looks like in high definition. Last week at a friends house I had the misfortune to see Simon Cowell in all his high definition glory and it's not a pretty sight.

Before 'Do Gooders' I caught Miranda Harts sitcom 'Miranda'. I have seen the trailers for this but never managed to see it until this evening. I like Ms Hart. And I think this sitcom will grow on me. Mondays are looking good.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miranda_(TV_series)