Swearing in the UK: a colourful history

The Free Speech Union has condemned a local authority in Kent for imposing a "draconian" new order that threatens on-the-spot fines of £100 for swearing in the street.

Thanet District Council has adopted a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) that bans "language or behaviour causing or likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to any other person".

A long and colourful history

Swearing was made a criminal offence in Britain in the 1600s, when legislation described such words as "detestable sins". Then the Profane Oaths Act 1745 introduced a hierarchy of fines for the "horrid, impious, and execrable vices of profane cursing and swearing".

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Bad language has also been the subject of curious etiquette. In "olden times", wrote Tanya Gold for the Evening Standard, "taverns would have a public bar, where you could swear", and "a lounge bar, where you could not".

A great deal changed during the 1960s. The abolition of censorship in that decade "gave free expression" to many words and phrases that "previously had been deeply taboo", said the BBC. 

Appearing on a late-night live satire programme called "BBC-3" in 1965, Kenneth Tynan becomes the first man to say "f**k" on TV. The same decade also saw swearing begin to "make its way into the recording booth" of pop music, said Slate.

The word "c**t" first appeared in a British newspaper in 1987, recalled Unherd. It cropped up in the unlikely context of a cricket match report in The Independent after the word was used in a disagreement between England captain Mike Gatting and umpire Shakoor Rana.

More recently, there has been a backlash against swearing in public. In 2011, Peter Foot, chair of the National Campaign for Courtesy, told the BBC that if you want to swear "in your own room, that's fine" but "if you're in a place where you're in earshot of other people" it can be "very distressing".

The same year, officers in Barnsley were told to monitor the language of people out and about in the town centre. If any overheard profanity was judged to be potentially causing offence or intimidation, the officers could advise the individual to moderate their language; if that was unsuccessful, the officer was allowed to fine the person up to £80.

Thanet hits back

Flouting the new rule in Thanet will cost "sweary locals" £100 and must be paid within 28 days, said Your Local Guardian, but if the fine is paid in 14 days it will be reduced to £60.

But how successful the rule will be is open to debate. In July, when it was discussed at a Thanet District Council cabinet meeting, Cllr Rebecca Wing said "the police have told us they won't enforce it".

The Free Speech Union told The Telegraph that Thanet's PSPO was "the worst" it has seen, because it "effectively imposes a strict liability speech offence", with "none of the safeguards".

Make Thanet safe again

A local resident told Mail Online that it was "a bad idea because freedom of speech is very important" and another said a £100 fine is "a bit harsh". But another said that although "free speech is free speech", that "shouldn't include being abusive to people, horrible behaviour or swearing".

Commentators have spoken out against the development. "It just makes me want to go up to Thanet and swear", said Bev Turner on GB News, adding that she wanted to "walk up and down the street swearing”.

Noting that a council spokesman, said that banning swearing would make Thanet safer, Gold said that "he doesn't understand human nature".

But Labour councillor Heather Keen said that "antisocial behaviour can have a detrimental effect on people's enjoyment of the place where they live if it isn't dealt with".

Making Thanet "a safer and cleaner place to live in, work in or visit" is "a top priority for residents", she added, and the new PSPO is "a positive step towards this ambition".