Why Isn't This Already Illegal Across The Board?

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-23429849
disgusting practice.

[mikey4444]

Its a disgusting habit, that's for sure but who on earth is going to police this if its going to become a crime ?

[jake-the-peg]

A *criminal* offence? - Really?

I agree a disgusting practice - but a criminal offence?

[Octavius]

Dunno, did you see Tiger Woods at The Open spitting his way around Muirfield, ewww.

[tiggerblue10]

I would love for it to become a criminal offence but how do you go about policing it?

[excelsior-1]

not to mention professional football players

yeuk!!

[tiggerblue10]

Footballers do it in front of millions. Will they be prosecuted too?

[ToraToraTora]

Police it the same way as littering I guess.

[ToraToraTora]

Don't be silly tigger, I'm talking about in the street, spitting during high aerobic exercise is accepted.

[McMouse]

When I was a child in a West London suburb there was a local by-law prohibiting spitting in the street. I remember seeing the notices but don't know if the fines were imposed.

[ToraToraTora]

the link above does have a " without good reason " that's fine. I'm talking about the oiks that walk down the stree spitting every 5 yards. If you must spit do it into handerchief.

[mikey4444]

I wasn't aware that littering WAS being policed. If it is, then there is precious little evidence of any action being taken anywhere I have been recently !

[ichkeria]

Not this nonsense again. I don't accept that it's even necessarily a disgusting practice. It depends how, where and why it's done.

[heathfield]

In my youth it used to be common to see signs in buses and on streetlamps that said "No spitting. Penalty 20 shillings." Our teachers told us that this was because lung diseases could be spread by spitting. Some bacilli were able to survive for up to six months after phlegm and spit dried up, then could spread in wind-blown dust to infect other people. Being given that explanation, preventing spitting sounded sensible to us.

[rockyracoon]

Enfield have a Taliban-like army of litter patrol wardens, they hide round corners, in doorways, anywhere they can see an infraction about to occur, then they swoop. Two friends I was with a while ago where on the receiving end of a litter notice (served them right), the wardens were like stealth machines, they just appeared from nowhere.

If it's a fixed penalty, how does that become criminal?

[dustypuss]

I think those that spit in the street should be made to pick it up !!!!!!!!!!!

[rockyracoon]

Sorry, the second bit of my answer was relating to the spitting.

[New Judge]

"I don't accept that it's even necessarily a disgusting practice."

Really ichkeria? So it's quite alright by you for people to spread their phlegm (containing all manner of unspeakable organisms) all over the place where people walk. What's also OK. Having a quick pee against your garden wall? Prhaps having a number two in the bushes in the local park?

I think we have slightly different standards.

[ichkeria]

It would make more sense to incorporate spiitting on buses etc into a general code of acceptable behaviour covering a multitude of things. In other words applying common sense. Focussing on the actual spitting is missing the point.

[wiltsman]

Reminds me of this Spike Milligan verse:

There was a young man from Darjeeling
Who boarded a bus at Ealing.
It said on the door,
"Don't spit on the floor"
So he stood up and spit on the ceiling!

[New Judge]

"If it's a fixed penalty, how does that become criminal?"

Many matters that are dealt with by way of fixed penalty are criminal offences, rocky. A couple of the more common that immediately spring to mind are speeding and theft from a shop.

Many offences committed under bye-laws also attract a criminal conviction. Travelling on the railway without a ticket is a good example of this.