[spot]

I told you oscar, I live ten minutes from there. The road's even called Ladies' Mile, for goodness sake, it's been used that way since the Middle Ages.

Wildlife? After dark? It's a fixed area of the Downs, it takes maybe a tenth of the available space and anyone up there after dark with binoculars would be considered a bit furtive.

They're not no-go areas in the slightest, I can't remember any instance of intimidation in all the years I've lived here, it's a grown-up playground. Everyone from the Lord Mayor down knows what it's for. Most of Bristol's been there at some point too. It's traditional. People take their mothers. These aren't "deviants", these are sexual picnickers.

There's even a plaque on the side of the Water Tower to a woman who took tea round and made sure the working girls stayed safe, now I think about it.

My reference to "opposition to homosexuality" was triggered by your "more than the raving Bertie's found cottaging or out on a common". You'll pardon my reacting to that as though it were a homophobic comment.

The entire point of the article, in my rather uninformed opinion, is that no crime has been committed unless the PC chooses to make it a crime. It's not a matter of overlooking anything.

Just look at the bottom line, oscar. You don't want people to do these things but the law says it's legal for them to do it. You're slightly out of touch here. I can imagine you organizing pickets to go there specifically to be shocked in order to make it illegal, you know.