This article from Reasononline sounds hard to believe from the land that brought us Magna Carta http://reason.com/news/show/133423.html.

But apparently it is true.

48 year old Caroline Cartwright is facing jail in the UK because she offends her neighbours by making too much noise during sexual intercourse.

She's breached an Anti-Social Behaviour Order which forbade her from being noisy in Britain. Now she could be jailed. Another one for the Blair/Brown government.

Seems to me that parties of the left tend to be more prudish and get away with more deprivation of liberty than parties of the right. Which seems counter-intuitive in that parties of the left tend to have platforms which are vocal about civil liberties. And also, pertinently in this case, the rights of women.

I wonder how likely Australia is to go down the British route. The tendency certainly exists here. Would a bill of rights widen rights, or be complicit with those trying to restrict rights? Certainly the UK bill of rights doesn't appear to have stopped this.

Interesting! At times, I wish my neighbour could be locked up for yelling obscenities at his lawnmower - he is so aggressive that I avoid going into my yard except when he is out of sight. That said, I deal with the problem rationally - I ignore it. And when drunks stagger down the alley beside my house at all hours of night, yelling and screaming, I just roll over and go back to sleep. For this woman to have irritated her neighbours enough to have them call the police, she must have been one hell of a screamer.

The ASBO concept is a sound one, but I would suggest that this case illustrates a clear flaw. Rather than locking up drunks and hoons, they are looking to lock people up for enjoying sex too much. What are her options? Gagging herself? Abstaining? Both possible, I suppose, but not reasonable.

Dear Graham,

I wonder what kind of responses you're
going to get to this thread?

My initial reaction was - "You've
got to be joking - right?"

This can't be serious. So I did a bit of scrawling
on the web - and my goodness, it is for real.

My next reaction was - Lucky woman!
Until reading further (sorry I'm trying hard not
to laugh)... it seems that this was the third
court order the couple have ignored. The police
even tape-recorded the noise levels,
after the neighbours
kept complaining - and confirmed that the levels
were indeed high. The neighbours said that they
hadn't had a solid nights sleep for 2 years (and
one of the neighbours was partially deaf) :)
The neighbours said the noises came from both
parties.

There you have it. Flounting the bans with her husband
Steve, Caroline Cartwright doesn't seem to care who
she antagonizes. What I don't understand is -
why don't they have their bedroom sound-proofed?
Unless they're enjoying all this publicity? Or
being banned adds to their thrill of the experience.
Something like having sex in public places - a turn
on for some people.

Will this happen in Australia? I don't think so.
Our homes are not as close together, they're larger,
more modern, and are
better insulated. We don't live in each other's
pockets in this country. And we're got more open
spaces in which we can indulge. I don't think
we're going to have similar problems here.

As for our laws? Well, we already have laws in place
that prohibit noise pollution after certain hours -
so I guess if the police were called they'd have
to act on it. But as I said - I doubt if we're
going to have a problem here.

"Seems to me that parties of the left tend to be more prudish and get away with more deprivation of liberty than parties of the right." (Quote:GY)
___________

Oooh I dunno. There was this fella called Bush. His regime got away with 'deprivation of liberty'-and then some!,...for all of his time in office. Perhaps you need pay more attention to your more conservative members on OLO. They can be quite 'prudish'..
___________

"Which seems counter-intuitive in that parties of the left tend to have platforms which are vocal about civil liberties. And also, pertinently in this case, the rights of women." (Quote: GY).
____________

Come now! Given what we have recently gone through, SOMEBODY had to care about 'civil liberties'.

As to the rights of women...HA!! pffft to the 'rights of women'! Who the hell do they think they are!

Don't even mention that on OLO..

The screaming Sheila? Lock that bitch up and throw away the key, I say! The disgusting slut.

Agreed.The next time you go to a restaurant Graham,don't lasiviate too noisily on your favourite dish,lest you too are brought to the attention of the authorities.

We are losing our freedoms in the guise of fighting a phantom terrorist.US foreign policy which we blindly follow,creates western haters.The real terrorists are in our midst.

I have changed my mind on a rights bill.
We need a bill of rights tempered with a bill of responsibilities that defines not only the rights/responsibilites of the individuals,but those of GOVT and the legal system.

“The screaming Sheila? Lock that bitch up and throw away the key, I say! The disgusting slut.”

Ginx, – I have got to stop laughing at the screen, my family thinks I am nuts.

We have this problem in our home (nah not that!). Have a four year old foster child here who chatters constantly and often to herself. I ignore it and don’t think I even hear it anymore on any conscious level. Hubby gets home and it drives him nuts. He doesn’t like telling kids off cause often they get scared because he’s a big fella. This is how a quiet conversation goes regularly in the evening:

“Can you tell her to stop it?”
“No”
“I’m trying to watch the news”
“So”
I can’t hear it with her making that noise
“Turn it up”
“If you don’t tell her I will”
“Turn it up and leave her alone she’s happy”

I’m sure these people had the same conversation with the police many times before, like me, for the sake of peace I finally get the girl to be quiet because I get sick of being bothered about it.

It is the perception aye. The article turned it in to something about sex and making women timid but it was about the noise and not being able to afford a home in the country.

My nieghbours get fed up when I have 6 or 7 under five year olds here making noise in the back yard. I sympathise and pretty much ignore them. But I do believe no one should take babies to the movies or have children they can’t quiet down in restaurants. So being a hypocrite is limited to my own property.

I tell nieghbours off for being noisy at night when I have the odd light sleeper come to stay.

I wish the police did come and quiet people down regularly in my nieghbourhood but I don’t think I’d like to see anyone go to jail for the times I am sensitive to noise. Maybe just taken out the back and given a quick beating.