Monday 31 August 2015

Intellectual elite


When I briefly lived in Cambridge, there was a slogan which went, 'Why doesn't the Gown mix with the Town?", meaning that the 70 or so percent of the student residents of the university city were very haughty and detached with the rest of the locals who fed and watered them. I wish we could say the same of Bath University.

One day before the 1st of September and a Bank holiday weekend has brought the drunken, rowdy, yobbish and obnoxious hoards students of both sexes back onto the streets between 10.00pm and 5.30 am, and I have only just remembered how peaceful and pleasant our city is when they are away.

University towns have always been like this since the 17th century, but the difference is that groups of drunken students were much smaller in those days, and the universities had teams of beadles out at night to restrain them.

I really pity the late tourists to Bath, who will go away thinking that this ghastly behaviour involving groups of intimidating young men and women going around swearing at the top of their lungs, urinating in doorways, kicking cars, running in front of taxis, throwing bollards around and scaring anyone over the age of 30 off the streets is not only tolerated, but seemingly encouraged by the city authorities.

One big problem is that Bath no longer has a police station, and we haven't seen police on the streets here - walking in pairs - for about 5 years now anyway. They are currently teaching the government a lesson by pretending to have too much paperwork to do to leave their offices, and that they are suffering even more than the rest of us by the financial cut-backs.

Why does Bath no longer have a police station?

Because they have sold the building to Bath University, who are going to use it for student accommodation. You think I am joking, don't you?

16 comments:

  1. That's outrageous closing down Manvers Street Police Station.
    I would have thought that Bath with its new housing estates and therefore increased population would require more policing rather than less.
    So is Keynsham Police Station now responsible for Bath City ?

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    1. I don't know where it is, other than it is a call centre manned by civilians, much deeper into Bristol than Keynsham. If you pay your money and dial '101', not even the call centre operatives answer, or if they do, they transfer you to a real police station, and they DEFINITELY don't answer. They will respond to 999 calls, because it means dashing about in cars.

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    2. Naughty of the Irish pixie to suggest that folk from a 'housing estate' would need extra policing. Sounds very anti the lower classes; I would have though he'd be more egalitarian.

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    3. Your turn to insult the twat this time. I'm on holiday tonight.

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  2. Norwich has one of the most notorious streets in the UK for all the things you describe above. We still have a Police Station, Bethel Street, and the cells brim over from Thursday to Sunday. Norwich is a no-go area on those nights for tourists and any locals over the age of 30. The drunks drowned in the river, so then it had to be fenced, and a charity provides care and protection for those vomiting in the gutters. I see the flowers outside the nightclubs after things have got really bad.

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    1. I am not nervous when walking around amongst the drunks at night here, because I know they are just noisy and anti-social freshers. Foreign tourists who are used to strolling around with their grandchildren and parents do not know this, however. Neither do the really elderly locals, who are at home by 7 because of them.

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    2. We really do need to reclaim the streets. It is no longer shameful to behave like this - it is the norm. We had to send British police over to Southern Spain this year because of them.

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    3. Norwich is not so much a student problem, although I have no doubt a lot of them are students of one sort or another, it is just a city that attracts people from all over East Anglia for partying at weekends and it often ends up getting nasty. Unless you really want to step over vomit and drunks it is best to stay away.

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    4. And that's just going over the threshold of your house!

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    5. Yes, exactly. You know me so well!

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  3. Agree about policemen/women walking around in pairs - they would stop so much petty crime. Why do the powers that be not see this?

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    1. They do see it, but cannot persuade Plod to get of his fat arse.

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  4. The powers that be have guards night and day to ensure no rowdy behaviour goes by their doors. Southport is now a town without a nightlife that isn't rowdy and after closing the streets echo with the usual drunken cussin' and swearin' as people wend their way home. And of course we no longer have a police station either...

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  5. The problem exists here, in college towns. I'm sure burning the furnishings of dorm rooms in street bonfires makes the international news. It happens when the home team wins, at Halloween, during spring break or just when it feels appropriate.
    We do have police and fire stations and know where the squad car or ambulance are coming from. There always is a large police presence for the anticipated drunken events. I cannot imagine how your current system work.

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    1. It doesn't work. It - like everything else - is governed by politics, but it is politics without a Sheriff you can lynch every now and then if he doesn't fulfil his promises. Also, our police have no guns without spending an hour signing them out by an armorer. Some of them have Tasers, but they are only used to subdue people who they already have in custody.

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