Case sparks debate about public nudity

Sep 6 2011 by Andrew Welsh, Perthshire Advertiser Tuesday

Dear Editor, – By once again jailing naked rambler and human rights campaigner Stephen Gough, Perth is rapidly gaining a reputation as a place of narrow-minded intolerance.

I hope Sheriff Michael Fletcher, who consigned him to yet another spell behind bars, doesn’t visit Edinburgh. Some sights here might scare his pants off!

The city centre has public sculptures featuring fully-naked women and boys, and statues of a naked man can be seen in the Water of Leith. Also the city’s College of Art, which is open to the public, has classical sculptures of fully naked men.

In addition, posters currently on bus shelters show a naked woman and an almost naked man – advertising an exhibition of paintings owned by the Queen herself. Thousands of residents and visitors pass by these every day without getting their knickers in a twist.

Perhaps the broad-minded citizens of Perth (surely there must some?) should commission a statue of an undressed Mr Gough to be placed in a public place in the town. Who knows, once people got used to it, even Sheriff Fletcher might come to regard public nudity as harmless and inoffensive?

Such a statue would certainly be a fitting tribute to a courageous man who has spent far too long in jail already.

RM Atkinson,

Argyll Terrace,

Edinburgh.