Back when we had an empire, Britain used to ship its
criminals off to distant lands like Australia. Or we would just hang them. So you would think that this left behind a
nation of very law-abiding citizens.
But it is not so, according to a recent survey carried out
by BTTV. They asked 2,000 adults about their
attitudes to crime, and asked them about their own activities. The survey found that 98 per cent of
Britons described themselves as law-abiding.
But a more detailed examination of their behaviour found that they were
committing an average of 32 crimes every year.
Are tea drinking, queue forming Britons really committing so much
crime?
Yes, but when you read the laws these people are breaking,
perhaps it is surprising that they commit only 32 crimes a year.
The most common law that the people surveyed admitted to
breaking was drinking alcohol before they turned 18. Yeah, I did that one too.
Next was drivers who admitted swearing at, or
gesturing to, other road users. I don’t
think I ever did that. But it’s easy to
break this law. Drivers often try to be
polite and gesture for a pedestrian to cross the road in front of them. But you are not supposed to, in case another
driver doesn’t stop for them.
The third most commonly admitted crime was eating or
drinking while driving. That’s just
stupid. Australia is too good for people
who break this law. Send them to Birmingham
instead.
Next was the crime of vacuuming on a weekday before 8am or
after 6pm. Really? That’s a crime in the UK? I hope it isn’t a crime in Tokyo. My wife would be committing about 250 crimes
a year just from this one law.
Well, you get the idea.
There are a lot of laws, and we all tend to break the minor ones from
time to time. I’m more worried about the
fact that of the 2,000 people surveyed, only 98 per cent of people said that
they were law-abiding. What did the
other forty people say then? “Me? I’d steal anything that wasn’t nailed to the
floor. Hey, that’s a nice briefcase
you’ve got, mate!”
Just to finish off, let’s play a game. I’ll write down three actions. Guess which ones are against the law in the
UK. I’ll give the answers after the
vocabulary descriptions below.
1 – Being drunk in a pub
2 – A parent taking their child out of school without
getting the school’s permission
3 – Singing “Happy birthday” in a restaurant
Vocabulary:
to ship someone or something off – to send someone or
something away by ship
to hang someone – to execute someone, using a rope
law-abiding – of a person or people, tending to obey or
follow the law
a survey – a questionnaire; a series of questions asked of
many people for research purposes
to form a queue – to make an orderly line to wait for
something in turn
to turn (18) – to reach one’s (18th) birthday
to swear at someone – to use coarse language to show anger
at someone
Answers:
1, 2,
and 3 are all against the law in the UK
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