Free the naked rambler!

Yesterday Stephen Gough, aka "the naked rambler" was imprisoned for 16 months for refusing to abide by the rules of his ASBO which forbade him from "exposing his buttocks and/or genitals in a public place".

Is he really such an evil man that he attracts a prison sentence greater than those often handed down to burglars, arsonists and even violent hooligans? I think not. Sure, Mr Gough has broken the cardinal rule in that he has defied the establishment, and the state is always hard on any one who dares to do that. But whose problem is it really: his or ours? Are we so screwed up, so rigid in our society that there is no room for the individual who challenges our most basic axioms of "permissible behaviour"?

I live in the city of Cardiff, which I have always observed to be a remarkably tolerant community. A few years ago, an elderly and probably disturbed lady regularly wandered the streets of our city with her skirts hitched up to the point where her genitals were on display to anyone who cared to look. As far as I am aware, she was never arrested, though I think she was probably discreetly asked to leave department stores when she wandered inside. Otherwise she was left alone in her weirdness, free to act out the doubtless deep psychological issues her activity suggested. I never heard anyone say that "something should be done" about her. She was simply considered part of the human landscape of the city.

I have little doubt Mr Gough also has his psychological "issues"; he has stated that he had a revelation one day that he was "good" and suspected that other people were likewise, and it was this revelation which led him to expose himself. Of course I don't understand this, but I defend his right to act in the way he does. Why is he so offensive to ordinary people? It's just the body God gave him, the same body shared by half the population of the planet, so it's not exactly unfamiliar to us.

I say, it's our problem if we can't handle his nudity, not his. If we were a truly tolerant and compassionate society we'd let him do his thing unimpeded. It's not as if he'll spawn a slew of imitators, especially in the winter months. And so what if he did? So let's just relax and see him for what he really is, one of that rare, but illustrious breed: the Great British Eccentric.