Member-only story
Whatever Happened to Scotland’s Courage, Tolerance and Free Toilets
Dreaming of a better country with true national pride
When I was a boy, my mum used to take me shopping on a Saturday morning. We’d walk the mile into town, stop at the butchers, the bakers, and the grocers, which was, handily, near the free public toilets.
Back then, toilets were well-equipped, clean, and free from graffiti. An attendant sat outside in the sun, or in her office, peering out when it rained. As patrons exited, she’d enter with her mop and bucket and get to work.
When I grew up, those toilets began charging a nominal sum to cover cleaning materials and loo roll. It’s a small price for a poo but too much for the average male pee, so they would disappear around the back of the building to save their pennies.
Today, those toilets are gone, just when I need them. Now it is a ‘resource centre’, an office where council employees can make copious amounts of tea, eat biscuits and shirk work. On their way home from the pub, men still nip around the back of that building to do their business.
It’s an inevitable decline in the standards we set for our land when we remove facilities from its people. If we want citizens to feel pride in their country, it shouldn’t smell of piss.