Now, it's not often I find myself on the side of an argument that, no doubt, would include Richard Littlejohn et al but REALLY, it's not a criminal offence to swear at a policeman?
What sort of society have we become?
Sure, everyone swears at one time or another and that swearing varies in the vocabulary that is actually used. I'm not advocating that all swearing is a criminal offence but when the swearing is directed AT somebody, rather than just an exclamation or an insertion into an adult conversation for emphasis, then I think it should be a criminal offence.
Will it be an infringement of human rights if a school bans swearing? If a pupil swears at a teacher, is it no longer permissible for that pupil to be punished? Should that pupil not be put into detention or temporarily excluded or their parents called in?
As a kid, I used to get very embarrassed when I was watching a television programme with my parents and someone swore. The other day, I watched a movie on Sky, The Town, and cringed at the reliance of the F-word throughout. Is swearing really that commonplace that it is a part of every sentence that some people utter?
If the Court of Appeal think that swearing at a police officer is perfectly reasonable behaviour I think it's up to MPs to table a law that makes it clear that it's not acceptable.
Swearing has a place in our ever-changing language but it must, always, remain as something extreme and something that is wrong if it is aimed as a verbal assault on somebody. It's nonsense that using a racial name would see someone in court but to call them an extreme swear word wouldn't.
Context is everything.
This time the courts have got it wrong.
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