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Rod McPhee: Why we were right not to jail this idiot
THERE'S no questioning the fact that Philip Laing – the student who this week narrowly escaped jail after urinating on a war memorial – is a moron.
There's no doubt in my mind that he is the archetypal ra-ra student who drinks to ridiculous excess and struts around in a swaggering, chest-beating, alpha male show of idiocy most weekends.
What he did was utterly outrageous, but I'm glad he didn't go to prison.
And I'm glad because he has already had a far stiffer penalty meted out by the court of public opinion. Laing really did outrage public decency – but essentially that's all he did.
He didn't steal anything, he didn't assault anyone, he didn't mug an old lady, nobody died. And that's important because every day in British courts real scum walk free having committed the most horrendous offences.
Some people carry out heinous acts of violence, vandalism and recklessness, and in some cases individuals have escaped – and this is simply unbelievable – with no more than police cautions.
Although Laing's actions were undoubtedly an act – intentional or otherwise – of contempt, locking him up would have been equally enraging to all those victims of crime living with the knowledge that they didn't gain the same tough justice.
Incarceration would have simply been about making an example of him, and while we all want to see an element of retribution in punishing people, let's keep some kind of perspective.
Let's utilise the law defending the modern-day freedom that those men and women who died fought to give us. As for Laing, we should dismiss him as the adolescent bonehead he is.
By giving him so much attention we've inadvertently credited his actions with a response. We may even have created some kind of sick hero for all those other hard-drinking oiks out there who wouldn't hesitate to do the same, or worse. Jailing him may even have made him a martyr.
My fear is that such a symbolically disrespectful act will now be held up as typifying today's youth culture. It doesn't. The binge-drinking culture, maybe. But there were just as many young people out there who shook their heads with disgust when they saw the pictures and would never contemplate doing the same.
Funnily enough, young people don't need the image of a teenage student peering out from behind bars to remind us that it's wrong to pee on poppy wreaths laid at war memorials.
Laing certainly shouldn't be used as a lightning rod for some generational battle – if we do that then we're merely hijacking the original source of our outrage, which is almost as disrespectful.
Beero's a hero
I CAN still remember my first foray into Back to Basics in Leeds when I was just 18-years-old.
Back then in 1992 the night had only just opened in the Music Factory on Lower Briggate. I can't tell you the joy at actually getting in since they were a little selective about who did and didn't get past the front door. Making it into the warmth was validation that you were a bit cool.
And I can still vividly recall standing in the stairwell of B2B looking out of the window of the Music Factory over Leeds. It wasn't what you'd call a pretty skyline.
But it was a city, a REAL city, not the tinpot town I came from. And I think it was at that moment that I knew I would come here one day. The whole experience just felt so exciting, so big, so different.
I relay this unremarkable anecdote because this weekend Back to Basics celebrated its 18th birthday and, although it moved from its original home a long time ago, I'm sure it's provided countless defining moments for a whole generation of Loiners.
People underestimate the importance of nightlife and just how many people it has brought here over the last two decades. Sadly, pioneers like Dave Beer who set up B2B don't get the credit they deserve. But for a whole league of twenty to forty-somethings, myself included, they'll always be local heroes.
Take the cheesy option
UPMARKET twists on classic food have always had a mixed reception in Leeds.
There's been a boom in gourmet burgers, for example, but when dearly departed fish and chip restaurant Battered created gourmet scraps containing coriander, chili and beer, they ended up being scrapped along with the restaurant.
But the latest twist is even more unexpected and could prove to be a huge hit: fromage sur le pain grill. Yep, good old cheese on toast, the original comfort food usually consumed late at night when you return inebriated from a evening out.
The Rock Bar – the new nightspot on Call Lane – are offering some chic versions appropriate for their chic bar. Here the menu comprises cheddar with Worcester sauce, goat's cheese and rosemary honey, chargrilled pepper and halloumi, dolcelatte and onion confit as well as smoked applewood and tomato jam.
It also means you don't have to run the drunken gauntlet with a grill at 2am. Oh, and in case you were wondering, it's 3 a shot.
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Weather for Leeds
Sunday 12 February 2012
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