But you are all civilised now… I remember in the early 60s, when yobs could be given a good birching, and shops lit-up their windows at night. On a fine night people would wander through main streets looking in the windows, “window shopping”. Neon signs added colour, and when it was raining the colours would reflect on the damp ground. Cinemas and pubs turned out at about the same time but there was very rarely any trouble. I remember seeing, at chucking out time, a “merry” chap staggering out of the Golden Lion carrying a cardboard box full of bottles. The bottom dropped out of the box and bottles rolled all over the place. Passers by helped gather them up for him and somebody produced a piece of string to fortify the bottom of his box. Would that happen theses days, or would half the bottles disappear? But we were uncivilised in those days, according to anti corporal punishment groups. Their “theory” was that if you treated wrong doers with respect and kindness they would mend their ways, and our use of corporal punishment meant that our society was uncivilised. The people whose job it was to try to control the baduns argued against this. One senior Scottish police officer stated that after one dose of the birch they never came back for a second dose. Scotland had abolished corporal punishment earlier, and this police officer quoted Scottish cities as an example. Since abolishing CP people no longer enjoyed late night strolls, and shop windows were shuttered and covered in graffiti. It will happen in England he stated. But, the unelected pressure groups got their way and our “uncivilised” society became the “civilised” society of today.
Apologies for the long rant.
