Wild Camping Petition: Commentary

Written in response to Dawn's comment earlier today:

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Good one, Dawn. I feel, like so many others, they can't be seen to be encouraging (how do I phrase this without the BBC's lawyer's to hand): the toleration of the unlawful status quo.

Not that it can be anything in comparison with some of the serious and life-threatening unlawful activity that goes on in the UK.

Remember, landowners can give consent to wild camping. They could even put out an 'honesty box'. Heck, one of the main reasons I joined the National Trust for Scotland was the free parking at places like Linn of Dee (access to the Cairngorm Plateau et al). They provide a good service, so I don't object to putting some money their way.

It isn't rocket science! But then, I'm not a townie, so was brought up differently. Free range childhood, slippy rocks as slides, ruined blackhouses as dens, hiding behind wind-blown trees, lambs and goats for pets, and later the same sheep for lunch. I remember one summer, it was so nice that some of us kids stayed out in a home-made tent for over a week, just in the garden.

But, times are different now. Other people are scum, unworthy of our trust, just want to murder us in our beds, set fire to the countryside, and steal our satnavs. Meanwhile, we some people are fighting for this same society, and getting shafted by pen-pushers who see a "covenant" as something to get out of paying if they can. Well, folks, we have a "social contract", we can't just go and decide what laws we will live by and which we don't. And we certainly can't have VAT-registered organisations openly saying that it is okay to break the law, because there is probably a law against that. "Incitement to cause civil disobedience", which, if memory serves me right, carries a statutory fine.