Summary
Would you ******* believe it? A council has ******* banned swearing in public. The council in question is Salford which has used a Public Space Protection Order to tackle anti-social behaviour in the Salford Quays area which includes Media City, home to the BBC, which might be just a coincidence. Part of the order says it will be deemed a criminal offence if anyone is caught 'using foul and abusive language'. Public Space Protection Orders, or PSPOs, are similar to ASBO's (anti-social behaviour orders), and allow for broad powers to criminalise behaviour that is not normally criminal. PSPOs are geographically defined, making predefined activities within a mapped area prosecutable. Since they came into existence in 2014 many councils have embraced their new powers enthusiastically, with various PSPO's making, or attempting to make, it a criminal offence to sleep rough, drive a loud car and walk a dog without a lead. It seems that control, or regulation, of public space is becoming more common. In the last month alone a council in Wales has banned smoking on a public beach, the London Underground is considering stopping people walking up escalators and a well known store asked a customer to leave because her toddler was having a tantrum. Are regulations to tackle public nuisance a commendable attempt to protect us or an oppressive enforcement of social conformity targeting public activities that are merely unusual or unpopular? This tension between individualism and the common good is an issue which bedevils so many aspects of contemporary society. If it is true that inconsiderate behaviour is increasing in our society, how should we deal with it? How do we balance our moral obligation to the rest of society with our desire to do what we **** well please? Chaired by Michael Buerk with Claire Fox, Michael Portillo, Giles Fraser and Anne McElvoy. Witnesses are Anna Minton, Alfie Moore, Danny Kruger and Terry Christian.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | You're listening to a programme from BBC Radio 4. |
| 0:04.2 | Good evening. I don't think Solford has yet been twinned with Monaco, however much it's gone up in the world, since the fun bits of the BBC, well, songs of praise and match of the day, moved up there. |
| 0:14.6 | But the two places, one, the richest corner of the planet, which goes to some lengths to ensure its billionaires are not upset. |
| 0:20.6 | The other, a regular contestant for the title of the most deprived place in Britain, |
| 0:24.7 | have this in common, a pretty strict attitude to public behaviour. |
| 0:29.3 | Salford's just brought in one of the new public space protection orders, |
| 0:33.1 | making all sorts of larks around Solford Key's criminal offences, |
| 0:36.9 | including jumping off the bridges and the use of foul and abusive language. That'll fix Gary Lineker. |
| 0:43.0 | These PSPO's are like Asbo's, only imposed on an area rather than an individual. They're being used all over to criminalise behaviour previously legal. |
| 0:52.3 | Protests, dogs off leads, rough sleepers, showing off in a noisy car, smoking on beaches. |
| 0:58.4 | It's all part of a wider trend that many regard as a long overdue attempt to enforce civility |
| 1:03.4 | in a post-stigma increasingly badly behaved society. |
| 1:07.6 | But libertarians see it as a closing down of public space, an oppressive attempt to impose social conformity by decree, or increasingly in new developments, the privatisation of public areas. |
| 1:20.0 | It's the old moral tension between individualism and the common good. How do we strike a balance between our obligations to civil society and our freedom to do as we please? |
| 1:29.5 | That's our moral maids tonight. Our panel, I'm McElvoy, senior editor on The Economist. |
| 1:33.5 | Claire Fox from the Institute of Ideas, the former Conservative Cabinet Minister Michael Portillo and the priest and polemicist at Giles Fraser. |
| 1:40.0 | Claire Fox, social control or good manners? |
| 1:43.3 | Well, I want good manners, but I don't think you get it through social control. |
| 1:46.6 | That's one of the problems. |
| 1:48.1 | So I do think that these public space protection orders are a real affront to liberty and free speech |
| 1:53.0 | and a part of sanitising public space. |
| 1:55.9 | But the main thing is that they also make our society rules-based |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.