Should Britain copy Singapore’s crime crackdown?
Singapore has announced that any bus passenger blasting out music from his or her phone will be fined S$500 (£295). Quite right, too. But, while there is much to admire in Singapore’s famously stringent approach to tackling antisocial behaviour, I must confess that some of its laws puzzle me. Consider the following. If you fail to flush a public lavatory after use, you will be issued with an on-the-spot fine of S$150 (£89).
In principle, I support the authorities’ stance. But I do have one small question.
How exactly do they monitor this particular crime?
Do they, for example, station an armed guard inside every lavatory cubicle in the land, 24 hours a day, to check that each user in turn observes the correct flushing procedure, and immediately fine any who fail to do so? That would certainly add new meaning to the old Scottish expression “gardy loo”. Incidentally, imagine if that was your job.
“Evening, darling. Good day at work?”
“Not really, no.”
Alternatively, perhaps they use cameras. Deep inside every public building, crack security men surveil vast banks of screens, and occasionally bark: “Non-flusher in Cubicle 7! Send in the SWAT team!”
As I say, I don’t know the answer, because I’ve never been to Singapore. But now I think about it, maybe it’s best if I never do. Here in Britain, our buses may be bursting with obnoxious yobs. But at least, when you answer nature’s call, you can be reasonably sure that MI5 isn’t listening in.
.jpg)
