Spitting, loud music on public transport and Banksy – Harborough MP lists bugbears that are making Britain ‘uncivilised’

The Conservative MP said in an article on Substack that the “most under-discussed and under-appreciated” thing in politics was the “unrealised desire” of people to live in a “civilised, orderly society”. That, he said, was something “often promised” by those in charge, but which had “not been delivered” in his lifetime.

He blamed politicians on both the left and right for the apparent failure, saying his own party was “culpable” as it “prioritised other things more”, while Labour was “far too quick to tolerate dangerous behaviour” if perpetrators could tell a “sob story”, he claimed.

Mr O’Brien said he felt that there was “a lot of direct suffering from low-level disorder” and from the “loss of civilised standards”. He asked: “How many people reading this have heard people playing obnoxious music on public transport and weighed up saying something, versus the risk of trouble if you do?

“How many people have got used to frequently smelling cannabis on the streets of London and our other cities? How often do you see graffiti in a day?”

He went on to suggest a number of things that he believed could be done to deliver “pleasant, civilised and nice” places to live.

He called for:

• A national ban on playing music out loud on all public transport, enforced with more staff onboard and large and instant fines.
• The end of “street scars” (where sections of paving have been repaired with different materials to the wider pavement) which make our streets look messy and disorderly.
• The end of ‘box blight’, in which phone boxes and street furniture are covered in graffiti and stickers.
• A crackdown on spitting.
• A galvanising national goal to reduce the amount of litter.
• The planting of trees in every residential street in the country where remotely possible.
• A national push to clean up graffiti, catch more of those who do it and give them more serious sentences.
• A push for and incentivisation of the vernacular replacement of ugly buildings.
• Councils to sort empty shops (including using rental auction powers in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023).
• Councils and housing associations to sort dumping of fridges / mattresses / broken cars in gardens.
• Action to stop e-bikes and scooters being stolen / ridden on pavements.
• Requirements public e-scooters should be of the docking station variety, rather than ‘dumped’ across pavements.
• More use of notice to complete on stalled building sites.
• A push for hotspot policing everywhere and shift from reactive to preventative policing – plus reconsideration of PCSOs vs officer balance.
• Actual enforcement of the law on cannabis.

Mr O’Brien further claimed a “disorderly society” was a pathway to “crime and really serious disorder”, but said he felt that “elites” were “programmed” to think pushing for a more orderly society was “silly” or “cringe”.

He said: “Above all, I think the idea of doing things that would make Britain more orderly is just regarded as uncool, cringey or naff. Instead, today’s elites still valorise people like Banksy, whose work is painfully obvious and trite.”