If you, like me, live in the UK, this kind of news story is no surprise. A video filled with old people showing their shock and dismay at the idea of young people being outside, getting exercise and having fun.

“Ban ‘em” One woman splutters in bemusement. She cannot understand how these hooligans have been allowed to ride around on their little toys for this long without being arrested for causing a racket. The story is the same everywhere. Old people lining up to complain about young people doing something positive. And then, the obligatory “other side” where the skateboarders say “give us a skatepark that isn’t a basic concrete square or metal mini ramp”, with the news story ending on an uncertain shrug.

Firstly, I am forever tired of this “young people should stop going to public spaces and doing things” angle that every news story about skateboarders uses. Not everyone likes football. Maybe young people want to do something other than the norm. Just because a group of old people dislike skateboarding it doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t happen. The idea that some people think that being outside, enjoying the spring air, riding a skateboard is some kind of horror situation because it is happening in a large public space and not out of the public eye is pathetic. It is the kind of ridiculous bullshit that only the baby boomer generation could label as “horror”. This kind of bullshit is not news and continues to show this ridiculous bias the news and media has towards the interests of the old.

Secondly, I would rather be outside skateboarding at the expense of pissing some people off than forever inside, not getting exercise, not enjoying the weather. And England, probably moreso than any other country in the civilised world, has the worst idea of how to deal with skateboarding. Only England would sit there furrowing their brow like Boris Johnson, muttering under it’s breath about the fucking “horror” of someone on a plank with wheels happily skating about enjoying themselves, wringing their hands over the headache of how you could possibly provide a skatepark, how could you possibly work or talk with these perfectly approachable young people, as you weakly threaten them with a ban from doing the one thing they truly enjoy.