England discovers a new right
From a distance, Great Britain seems to have become a yowling moral mudpit where ASBO-yobbos slop around eating crisps, getting the pox, cashing dole checks, and throwing up. That’s the impression one gets from certain sources. Then you read something else, and your faith in the permanence of green & decent England is restored. Aww! A community has banded together to build a rest home for widowed hedgehogs! Then . . . there’s this.
The New York Times reports that residents of a small town are wondering what they can do about all the people who pull off the highway and have sex by the nursery school. This form of public recreation is called “dogging,” and it’s not entirely illegal. The poor little town of Puttenham has found itself besieged by al fresco enthusiasts, and residents wonder if there's anything they can do.
No. As these things usually go, the state will obliged to facilitate it:
Residents have been pressing the authorities to do something, arguing that the government should simply close the rest stop that provides access to the offending field, just off the busy A31 road. That way, people hoping to have sex would have nowhere to park.
But local government officials refused, saying closing it would unfairly penalize motorists who genuinely wanted just to rest and would deprive the owner of the Hog’s Back cafe, also at the rest stop, of his livelihood.
Alternative suggestions, discussed at a recent meeting of the Surrey County Council Cabinet, included deploying rangers to patrol the site on horseback; encouraging hikers to roust doggers with actual dogs; and filling the field with potentially bad-tempered bulls.
“It was like, ‘Are you taking this seriously?’ ” Ms. Paterson said. “One cabinet member said, ‘If you close this site, there could be an increase in suicides because these people have nowhere else to go.’ ”
A line comes to mind about the wisdom of a certain action, and its effect on decreasing the surplus population.
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Jun '10
Re: England discovers a new right
That's exactly how I picture Hell--a British "dogging" park full of pale naked Brits, with bad skin, making small talk about gardening between short bouts of humping.
May '10
Re: England discovers a new right
The swirling sound coming from Oxfordshire is Sir Winston spinning in his grave.
The Devil himself is British, etoil...
Aug '10
Re: England discovers a new right
I've lived off and on in England since 1965, and the deterioration of that once-great country has been precipitous. There was a dead cat bounce when Margaret Thatcher reigned, but the downward trajectory resumed when she left. Hopelessness, helplessness, and a sense of shame over imagined 'crimes' of the long-ago empire plague them; particularly the young, who are now pagan post punk.
There is nothing on the horizon that bodes well, particularly since IslamoNaziism gained a foothold.
May '10
Re: England discovers a new right
Britain seems less and less like a valuable ally.
Aug '10
Re: England discovers a new right
James Lileks:
No. As these things usually go, the state will obliged to facilitate it:
Well, to be fair, I've heard plenty of stories of councils cutting down pleasant groves or copses to discourage dogging, something which always strikes me as a bit... sad... Why should we lose the enjoyments of nature just because some people can't control themselves? (They cut down 6,000 trees at one site!)
And I'd be angry, too, if parking for my business were blocked by anti-dogging measures, or if my favorite rest area were closed down. Why force the innocent to suffer for the actions of the perverted if it can at all be avoided?
But worrying that the poor widdle doggy-woggers would commit suicide if frustrated is just... priceless... As if the great work of civilization weren't largely built on frustrated desire. If Freud got one thing right, it was sublimation.
Sublimate, people. Sublimate.
Jul '10
Re: England discovers a new right
This used to happen - perhaps still does - in a craggy, overgrown portion of New York's Central Park, known as "the rambles," where gay men thronged for sex al fresco.
Nothing was done about it, though thousands of visiting tourist families, oblivious to the folkways of gay New York, were shocked to stumble upon the orgiastic activities.
Eventually, when the AIDS epidemic arose, the City did invest in an educational outreach program, urging the rambles "community" to engage in safe sex. This didn't reduce the amount of sexual activity, but it did result in the rambles being obscenely littered with the, um, detritus of "safe sex".
Edited on Oct 11, 2010 at 9:40amJun '10
Re: England discovers a new right
Given Britain's parlous financial state, I'm surprised no one suggested taxing it.
By the way, don't they have cheap motels in Britain? If not, then it is a society in decline.
May '10
Re: England discovers a new right
This is greatly cheering news. Like Paul Krugman's wife after the election of Reagan, I'm turning off the ignition, opening the garage door, and headed for a civilised society where one's right to disport oneself in view of pre-schools is vigourously defended, just like the rights to escutage and barrage-in-fief. I may not agree with your toddler exhibitionism, but I'll defend to the death your right to flash the rugrats.
It's a living Magna Carta.
May '10
Re: England discovers a new right
Hence, my gloomy outlook for America. The Tea Party surge is a great sign for the next few years, perhaps even the next decade. But Democrats will regain control, and they can wreak more havoc in four years than we can undo in eight. It will always be easier to corrupt and destroy our Constitutional system than to repair it, easier to create entitlements than to secure freedom. Plus, the current Democratic Party doesn't care about our legal and moral rules.
May '10
Re: England discovers a new right
And nobody has yet speculated on the types of goings-on that occur in the Hog's Back cafe.
Aug '10
Re: England discovers a new right
You mean, a tax on Thingy? (The important discussion of a tax on Thingy begins at about 1:40.)
Edited on Oct 11, 2010 at 10:00amJun '10
Re: England discovers a new right
Midget Faded Rattlesnake
You mean, a tax on Thingy? (The important discussion of a tax on Thingy begins at about 1:40.) · Oct 11 at 9:52am
Edited on Oct 11 at 10:00 am
Wouldn't you know that Monty Python would get there first. But they do make an important point: they tax smoking, so why not tax "Thingy." On the other hand, wouldn't that be another form of placing the heaviest burdens on those in their twenties--another form of "inter-generational theft"?
Edited on Oct 11, 2010 at 10:30amJun '10
Re: England discovers a new right
Aaron Miller
Hence, my gloomy outlook for America. The Tea Party surge is a great sign for the next few years, perhaps even the next decade. But Democrats will regain control, and they can wreak more havoc in four years than we can undo in eight. It will always be easier to corrupt and destroy our Constitutional system than to repair it, easier to create entitlements than to secure freedom. Plus, the current Democratic Party doesn't care about our legal and moral rules. · Oct 11 at 9:42am
Aaron, I agree completely with your elegant comment -- down where I come from, we would have said: Any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a good carpenter to build one (Speaker Sam Rayburn)
Aug '10
Re: England discovers a new right
This is a matter rather close to my heart. I can't count the number of hours I spent as a child wandering through the woods and meadows, admiring the trees, the flowers, the animals -- the Splendors of Nature generally. And inevitably, even in the Wide Open Spaces of America, you stumble upon folks engaged in that one Splendor of Nature that is best kept private. Well, they'd resent me for "walking in" on them, and I'd resent them for resenting me -- it was public property, after all, and they had no right to expect that they wouldn't be walked in on.
I sometimes wonder if the obvious lack of consideration of these sex-crazed folks for those around them was instrumental in my vowing to remain chaste until married, and sticking to that vow.
Now, my husband and I love the Great Outdoors, and we, er, love each other, too. But a decent respect for the sensibilities of others has kept us from mixing the two so far.
It seems to me a considerate culture is the only real solution to this problem. Burke was right again: control of the appetites has to come from somewhere.
Re: England discovers a new right
Inevitably? What kind of sick. perverted state do you come from, Midge?
Aug '10
Re: England discovers a new right
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
Inevitably? What kind of sick. perverted state do you come from, Midge? · Oct 11 at 11:26am
Michigan?
Oh, and upstate New York.
May '10
Re: England discovers a new right
At last, California gets a reprieve.
May '10
Re: England discovers a new right
Midget Faded Rattlesnake
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
What kind of sick. perverted state do you come from, Midge? · Oct 11 at 11:26am
Michigan?
Oh, and upstate New York. · Oct 11 at 11:41am
No wonder you're scarred, having witnessed both Dingell and the Hottest Member. Just mindin your own business, and suddenly "whoa! put that away!"
May '10
Re: England discovers a new right
Back to Podcast Animal House?
May '10
Re: England discovers a new right
I think the owner of the Hog's Back restaurant should invest in a high-powered hose.