Hadaway & Faeces

‘IT’S not known what effect Alastair Campbell’s swearing had on Lord Hutton. And we should not discount the notion that it might have influenced proceedings.

‘I say, old chap’

After all, Chief Inspector Dave Jackson of Northumbria Police, which oversees Newcastle, tells the Telegraph that ‘an awful lot of people find swearing intimidating and threatening’.

‘It is offensive,’ he says, ‘it’s bad for the image of the city and what sort of example does it set for our children?’

In reply to the policeman’s question, it sets a pretty poor example to the little loves in terms of courtesy, but a pretty terrific one when it comes to intimidating people and telling them off.

As such, it’s a wonder why the police don’t swear more often, or all the time.

But it is high time things changed and from now on swearers in Newcastle city centre who have been warned about their language but persist in swearing will be arrested and fined £100.

And the move should be a nice little earner for the local constabulary since the non-swearing zone will take in the boxes, terraces and even the pitch at Newcastle United’s St James’s Park stadium.

But signs are that locals are supportive of the new directive, in theory.

An engineer from Gateshead says swearing isn’t nice. A local builder says that swearing in front of children and women is just plain wrong.

And then someone else pops up to remind us, as is his right and the way with such things, that the police should not be bothering with such things.

‘They should be out there dealing with the criminals,’ he says.

But they are, since swearing has just become a criminal offence – although what words constitute swearing has not been made clear.

So in the spirit of investigative journalism (the BBC and Andrew Gilligan take note) we offer the following to the Northumbria police force: ‘The referee’s a …’

There, that should get them thinking…’

Posted: 29th, January 2004 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink