Freedom from loutish behaviour
Monday, April 12, 2010 Forest had a meeting, a few weeks ago, with Keep Britain Tidy. It was a convivial affair and I don't rule out working with them in future to encourage smokers to dispose of their litter "responsibly". The main condition however is that it mustn't become yet another quit smoking campaign.
I mention this because Simon Hills (associate editor of The Times Magazine and a smoker) has written a piece about litter louts for The Free Society. He doesn't mention smokers, although he did confide that "I was having a smoke right by an ashtray outside a pub in Edinburgh over the weekend and a guy still just chucked his fag-end into the street. Why?"
Instead he writes:
I have seen grown men chuck litter from their windows, though, and beeped my horn and flashed my lights at them. This gives me immeasurable pleasure. Some tattooed yob glares at me, makes wanker signs, jumps up and down in his car seat, gets more and more stressed. Then I pout, screw my eyes into a vacant expression and scratch my head in the manner of a chimpanzee.
Litter yob by this time is desperate to beat my head into a pulp, he’s apoplectic with rage and, I hope, his day has been diminished in some way equal to the way mine has reflecting how grown-ups will (1) act like three-year-olds and (2) despoil their immediate environment so wilfully ...
Then there's the teenager "chucking his Coca Cola can" on to the grass outside the youth club:
Teenagers have never been the most housetrained of creatures. With hormones jumping like jellybeans, slouching around in bus shelters and hanging around in menacing gangs has always been the hallmark of your adolescent.
Up until some time in the Sixties, though, their behaviour was tempered by the fact they were scared, basically, of grown-ups or coppers or anyone reporting them to their parents. Not so long ago, even yob dad would basically be on the side of the Old Bill.
If we’re to enjoy a free society we need to bring a bit of that back. If old people are to be allowed to leave their homes in the evening without being genuinely frightened, if our children aren’t to be stripped of their mobile phones by gangs of yobs, if we are going to maintain some sort of decorum in our civic life, then we need adults to be free to behave as adults.
Full article HERE.
Reader Comments (3)
As someone who abhors litter it does not take much for me to agree. I think there is an element of 999 aircraft landing gets no coverage but with bitter irony from this weekend the one that crashes gets reported.
I am sure millions of smokers are very good at disposing of their butts responsibly, with the one that does not gets noticed. It is the same with dog dirt. I have noticed that the streets are a lot cleaner these days, especially as I believe that dog ownership has increased. The minute you notice one irresponsible owner many others get tarred with the same brush.
It is a bit rueful that I was at an event and berating a number of leaders of organisations for carelessly discarding their cigarettes on the street while I picked them up and deposited them down a drain.
When pubs and restaurants start treating smokers with respect again by putting ashtrays, or adequate wall 'butt boxes' back into smoking areas and most importantly emptying them, then I will become a good citizen again.
Since they threw us out in the gutter and deprived us of our social intercourse with other humans I will continue to stub my butts out on the pavement, throw my sweet papers out the car window and dump my empty cig packets in the gutter or wherever it will most annoy.
Its my silent protest since the smoking ban.
While driving through the countryside recently I was amazed to see rubbish of all denominations and some black plastic bags, strewn all over the hedgerows along the road.
Maybe its time Nanny realised that you cant put people into boxes and expect them to stay there.
Or maybe the revolution has started!!
I'm with you, Dave. People chucking litter in the street or in the park really hacks me off. Soooo anti-social. We have a beautiful park just by us that is frequently disfigured by litter, mostly food wrappings.
And sorry about Spurs, btw.