It didn’t take long for the heatwave to bring out the nation’s puritans in force. Police, we learn, have told people ‘not to try to cool off in rivers and lakes’. Local authorities, too, have been busily erecting signs forbidding river bathing, attempting to put an end to a centuries-old practice: 1930s photographs show the Thames at Greenwich heaving with bathers, and that in the days when the Thames was considerably filthier than it is now, and when bathers had to share the waters with ocean-going vessels travelling up to Wapping.
The heatwave was just hours old before the first headlines began to scream ‘Heatwave claims its first three victims’. There followed a round-up of several of the day’s drownings and car accidents. What the story didn’t go on to admit was that, in an average day, ten people are killed on the roads and rather more in accidents in the home.
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in