I have a ‘spoof’ Twitter account – Scoop Muldoon – he’s kind of my alter ego if you like lol…
A faded jaded old cynical hack who breaks the news, as in literally. He hasn’t got many followers but has been re-tweeted by the UK Space Agency and more recently had a tweet ‘favourited‘ by the Boston News lol.
Scoop Muldoon
That last tweet concerned Boston council planning to bring in a law making spitting on the street illegal. Now as an old leftie I immediately put the two together as nothing more than ageism and racism by any other name.
Think that’s a quantum leap..?
Well think about this – spitting is acceptable – if not highly acceptable and encouraged in very many countries. In Romania and Moldova for instance people spit after their first sale of the day (it’s meant to give good luck) and to ward off evil have been known to spit on children – as indeed they do in Greece. Also in Greece it’s seen as OK to spit three times on the floor after giving someone a compliment.
And hey let’s not forget China where spitting is almost an art form! Surely we wouldn’t want to discourage all those Chinese tourists, their pockets full of cash to spend, now would we..?
So what’s with the racism you might ask..?
It would seem that Boston for instance is home to very many immigrants and which in the past has caused some shall we say heated discussion amongst locals and right wing parties. Now I haven’t been to Boston for a few years, but I feel assured that serial spitters on their streets are likely to be immigrant or young…
The young because they do it (one guesses) to look cool. And the immigrants because, well they have phlegm in their throats, or if they’re Greek it’s because they just can’t stop giving out those compliments…
Fined £300 For Spitting
And it’s not just in Boston either, this so called ‘environ crime’ is probably going to be rolled out across the country if local Government Minister Eric Pickles has his way…
Now just think about this for a second. Sure no one likes to see anyone spit in public, but a law with on the spot fines..? That’s just plain wrong in my view, especially when the real anti social activities going on in town centres and estates across the country are virtually ignored by the police and councils.
How about this for a scenario. You’ve got a really heavy cold and in the middle of your trip to the local shop, you sneeze a few times, phlegm fills your mouth and you spit it out. Your local friendly policeman or worse, your jobs-worth from the council slaps you with an on the spot £80 fine. Not so funny huh…
How about joggers, they spit ALL the time – And come to think of it how about back prosecuting Paula Radcliffe for piddling in the street during the London marathon, far worse than spitting..?
joggers – a dirty bunch
And hey in this day and age of austerity and cuts, just imagine all the cash councils could rake in prosecuting all those spitters…
Look I’m not a champion of spitting (lol) or find spitting anything other than a necessary bodily action. I feel sure there’s more than enough anti social laws out there to arrest and prosecute someone spitting ‘illegally’ for instance if they’re using spitting as a means of assault. So why the need for yet more laws..?
It’s the incessant nanny state need for laws like this that really sticks in my throat – if you see what I mean…
ahem *clears throat after a seriously bad pun*
Footnote: What about footballers!!! Jeez they could spit for the Olympics and don’t get me started on close-ups of soccer stars ‘clearing’ their noses lol…
Famous recent spitters – Tiger Woods and Justin Beiber
