Steve Gough – The Naked Rambler

Steve Gough is in prison for being naked in public and has been on and off for seven years. Although arrested in England and released, when he walked naked in Scotland he was arrested and re-arrested several times. Currently he is in solitary confinement as he refuses to wear clothes in prison.
Steve has stated quite clearly, he is not a naturist but he does insist that there is nothing wrong with being naked, so there are common ideas. In recent times he has been quite controversial, discussions on the net, TV and radio have become very polarised, even heated. There is no agreement on whether he helps the naturist cause or not.
It seems to me that there is a clear difference between what is against the law and what should be against the law and that many people confuse the two. I am as guilty of that as any other. Not being a lawyer, I cannot say if the courts were right or not from a legal point of view, the problem being compounded because the law in Scotland is different from that in England. (Outsiders, especially those in the USA, see us as "The UK" but fail to see we have started down the road to complete separation of the two countries and have different laws. A shame, but true.)
The key point is this, is it right to have him in solitary confinement, possibly for the rest of his life because he was naked and caused a breech of the peace? Quite clearly, the answer is no.
For any offence, the punishment should be proportionate and this is not. It is time the police and the courts paid attention to more important issues. Why are they so frightened by a peaceful nude man? When I met him a few years ago, he did not frighten me.