SPITTING IN THE STREET COURT CASE

I personally find dog poo underfoot much more nauseating and the people who allow their dogs to do so equally so. Spitting is not something I am aware of around here although I do remember instances in the playground in my last school. Yes, it is anti-social behaviour, so is leaving litter or food (and who takes any notice of that if the rats in our cities are anything to go by) not to mention drunken vomiting outside pubs and clubs. Chewing gum which sticks on your shoes combines the foulness of litter with that of spitting - as it has been chewed.
Zero-tolerance always sounds reassuring to the chattering classes but I am less impressed by focusing on "soft" targets as the police often seem to do. Do they have the resources to follow this policy along with doing the rest of their job? Theft/violence/mugging/sex crime/ criminal damage - if I had to prioritise, I don't think spitting would be at the top of my list either. Doesn't mean I condone or approve, but could it be a wheeze tactic to improve the prosecution statistics.

@Elegran - "Bet you didn't stand on your hands to pee up a tree!"

You would definitely win that bet...

@Petra - surely if they are spitting bright red juice that's unlikely to be tobacco - sounds like betel nut.

Reading about this I think it's a private firm which is policing the anti-fouling bylaws in Waltham (in the way traffic wardens police parking) thus leaving the police free to pursue other felons.

I don't agree with fines though I think these offenders should be made to clean the streets instead.

A propos of not a lot, I have a horror of contracting out policing of any sort to private agencies. I worry about their accountability and the calibre of employees whi are unlikely to be as scrupulously checked as the police. Traffic wardens (who were not policemen) used to include helping the smooth flow of traffic in urban areas among their duties, which could include advising on places to park legally. Now "wardens" are only there to issue tickets - do they really need to patrol it pairs for that? If they are a private compnay who is paying them? Is it our rates mayhap?
And as for clampers - they run so close to the law all of the time and on the wrong side of it so often their activites are criminal.

Apparently they get a percentage of the fine, a sort of 'split of the spit'?. I don't know if it's an 'on the spot' fine (sounds unlikely) or if they issue a notice like traffic wardens.
Round here, traffic wardens operate singly Gracesmum ... but I can well believe there are areas where they are safer in pairs. Our community police officers do however go around in twos. These are not 'real' police are they?

Sometimes last summer on the way back from archery we stopped at a farm shop. If they had cherries I bought some and, sitting in the back of the car, had a great time eating them and spitting the stones out of the window into the wild verges of the glens we pass through. Happiness is a paper bag of cherries and somewhere to spit the stones.

You mean you didn't count the stones to find out who you were going to marry, or, if they were retrospectively correct?

Bags - you brought back a wonderful memory of driving along the coast road in Corsica on a beautiful day, with a turquoise sea below, a big bag of cherries and a classical CD blaring out, and not a soul to be disturbed by either the music or the cherry stones! I hope lots of little cherry trees took root.

Some very good points made gracesmum .
Spitting is not the norm in our society (unless you are an athlete! Imagine if they fined Mo Farah for spitting! Or picked up Bradley Wiggins for peeing on the bushes!). Because it is not the norm, we find it aesthetically unpleasant.
Those who transgress are mainly, I guess either very young men (deliberately transgressing) or people who have come from a culture where it is normal.
Unlike peeing in towns on a Saturday night, it does not cause a smell.
Is it a health risk? I don't think so.
Dog and cat shit on the other hand can carry parasites.
Dropped chips etc encourages rats
Don't think anyone ever proved that spitting spread TB - if it did, then obviously it might be a concern in some contexts.
Perpetrators may be getting picked up by "non police" officers but still going through police and court system and taking time and resources. I would have thought a verbal warning was about right if an officer saw some chaps hanging around spitting.
Is there one of the new crime commissioners behind this initiative I wonder - got to get those votes next time.

Good point Jess. To avoid infection don't sit next to any one on trains or buses. Go Japanese and wear a mask. Avoid small children who are at school or nursery they get and give you everything going!

Get the government to ban chewing gum.
Its probably apparent I have a thing about gum chewers and the mess they leave.

You would love Singapore then practically a capital offence there! Just realised since retiring from teaching - no more chewing gum on soles of shoes!

Yes definitely no licking of used chewing gum nellie, never use public toilets and, while out of he house, never touch anything without wearing surgical gloves.
euw yes gracesmum - I remember spending a free period at the end of term gouging gum from the under-sides of benches and cleaning out the plug holes

phlegm

Is that a link aka ? Presume not compulsory to click on it just after tea?
Interesting article in the New Scientist about why humans have manners. All about managing disgust and shame the writer's theory goes. We develop manners in societies, he opines, in order to manage the problem that we may find other people germy and disgusting and them us. But we do need to interact with them. So manners are rules that allow us to cope with that conflict.

I think Singapore revoked the law about chewing gum a little while ago gracesmum and it is now available there – sadly.

Enjoying your posts, jess. Entertaining as well as informative.

I feel I must admit to spitting ..............but only when a fly has flown into my mouth when I am on my bike. Is that allowed?
Fortunately it only seems to happen in the countryside.

Jess spitting is not just saliva it is phlegm ... it's a horrid word, a horrid substance and I apologise if you were about to eat, but I don't want it trampled into my house. I have a notice asking people to remove their shoes but I can hardly enforce it, short of wrestling them to the ground and forcibly removing their shoes...though I am sorely tempted

toggypiro isn't there a song about that?

Aka - are you thinking of

I know an old lady who swallowed a fly
I don't know why she swallowed a fly
Perhaps she'll die
etc

Occasionally the little blighters have gone straight down my throat but I'm not dead yet !

You could always keep your mouth shut, tiggypiro!
Or invest in a mask...

Or a niqab

Knew they served SOME purpose! (am I allowed to say that??)

I have just googled chewing gum in Singapore and got the following "Corrective Work Orders, and jail time, are often considered severe by outsiders. Similar fineable activities include spitting in public and not flushing public toilets. "

OMG not flushing public toilets!! That is surely a heinous crime. What do you do if (as so often happens at theatres in the interval) so many "ladies" are using them that the tank doesn't have time to refill? It is bad enough smiling sheepishly at the woman who goes in after you and muttering that "it wouldn't flush", but please, please spare me jail the next time that happens!!!