Men may be barred from baring their chests - and stomachs - in public under new local laws being considered by town halls. They would stop men stripping off their shirts in crowded town centres and give powers to police to remove any who defy the cover-up laws.The proposal has been inspired by the least attractive side effect of the heatwave - the tendency of a number of often middle-aged men to go about in nothing more than shorts and trainers. Last week the Daily Mail highlighted the wave of revulsion among most of the public at the summer's least welcome fashion trend, and pictured a series of the worst examples in the hope of shaming offenders into keeping their T-shirts on.
| Tsk, tsk ... |
The
"But one of the things that is depressing for anyone going shopping is the numbers of shaven-headed men, mainly in their 30s and 40s, who seem to think people want to see their torsos." He added: "It is only a small minority, one in a hundred people. But these men do look aggressive and occasionally behave aggressively. You would see a big difference in the shopping centre if they were made to put a shirt on.""It is nice weather and most of us are wearing fewer clothes. But a town centre is not the beach and taking your top off is going too far, for men as well as women.
| Wait a minute ... |
Officials in Bromley, in south east London, have responded warily to the proposal, suggesting that implementation might prove 'difficult'.
| "Hey Grissom, get over here, we got a code 2219." |
Mr Bennett, now a senior councillor in Bromley's ruling Tory group, said: "We already operate by-laws covering on-street drinking and a 'dispersal zone', where police have the right to break up groups of youths and ban gang members from coming back for 24 hours." Mr Bennett, who runs a property company, was a minister with local government responsibilities under John Major in the 1990s.
| And he's got a serious pickle up his butt. |