Here is a brief history of NAG, which was written as a contribution to the book "The truth about Naturism" by Richard Harrison and David Andersen. It was written before this (new) website was completed and does not cover the most recent developments and appointments.
A brief history of NAG
Naturist Action Group (NAG) has its origins in a movement that started during the early-mid 1990s within the membership of British Naturism (BN), or as it was then called The Central Council for British Naturism (CCBN). CCBN had started in 1964 as a merger of the British Sunbathing Society and the Federation of British Sun Clubs. This merger set the tone for CCBN, founded on Club Naturism and setting out to be the sole voice of naturism in Britain. In fact for many years CCBN described itself as The ‘Governing Body of British Naturism’. This authoritarian structure worked well for many years but by the mid-1990s Club membership was declining in total, and the demographic was ageing. People were expressing the wish to be naked when, where and how they wished, rather than only when conforming to restrictive Club rules. This increasingly widespread feeling found a champion in Rex Watson, who for 7 years was unpaid editor of CCBN’s magazine. He formulated a policy aimed at campaigning for ‘Nude Tolerance’. The idea was to push for changes in the law and society’s attitudes so that people could practice nude living in their own way and wherever they wanted, rather than having to hide away to live as they wished. Rex persuaded CCBN to formally adopt this policy, but in practice little happened as no resources were committed to it, and no one in CCBN took responsibility for it. Rex realised that CCBN was not going to change from the top, as the Executive Council was filled with long serving people, stuck in their ways and with a uniform Club mindset. So Rex initiated a loose association of like-minded people to become a grass roots pressure group of CCBN ‘supporters’ (the forerunner of individual members), calling themselves ‘BN Change’.
BN Change started slowly as there was little interest in BN’s (as they now called themselves) politics. However this began to alter in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s due to two things. Firstly there was a series of financial crises, which uncovered the fact that BN’s finances had been very badly mismanaged. Crass profligacy and poor financial controls, coupled with falling membership numbers led to a series of yearly deficits, which in turn led to the emergency selling of an investment at a loss to get BN through its financial year end and allow it to pay its insurance premiums. Members became increasingly critical of the EC’s management, and started asking questions in a way they had not done before. Secondly, membership numbers continued to fall at an increasing rate, and it was becoming evident that BN was not providing what new generations of naturists wanted. If the organisation was to survive at all, it needed to change in a number of ways.
This was fertile ground for BN Change, and the pressure on the EC grew to make the necessary changes. However, as the years went by the EC continually failed to grasp the nettle. Though some of them acknowledged that things needed to change, they did not know what to do, or were unwilling to actually do anything effective. So in 2007 BN Change put up 3 candidates for election to the EC. John Paine was elected President, Duncan Heenan became Treasurer and Reg Barlow Vice-Chairman. Their manifesto was a clearly spelled out agenda for change to address BN’s problems, but their first year in office did not go well. Their proposals were constantly blocked and voted down by the remainder of the EC. Added to this, attention was taken away by the discovery of an earlier financial fraud by a former Chairman, which the longer serving members of the EC wished to hush-up. These frustrations, coupled with some personal issues for the BN Change trio, led them to resign a little over a year into their tenure, as it was clear that no progress could be made with the attitudes prevailing within the EC at the time.
Having decided that Nude Tolerance was unlikely to happen through BN at that time, the core of BN Change decided to continue the struggle through another medium, and in 2008 NAG was born. The founders were Paine, Heenan, Barlow and Peter Knight, who formed a Company Limited by Guarantee, (Registered Number 608237 ) called Naturists Limited to act as the legal vehicle for NAG’s operations. The concept was not to compete with BN, but to complement BN’s presence by being an organisation dedicated only to campaigning for Nude Tolerance, or Naturist Freedom as it was sometimes called. The structure reflected this in that NAG is not a members organisation. It is a loose association of supporters, who pay nothing except voluntary donations. As a result there is no need for a Membership infrastructure, and therefore very low costs. Communication is mostly by a website and email, and by the use of Social and commercial media. NAG is run by a Management Collective consisting of the founders plus some later volunteers; the composition has changed a little over the years. As a dedicated campaigning organisation, it was decided from the outset not to organise ‘events’ unless they served a direct campaigning purpose. Major decisions are made at half yearly face-to-face meetings of the Management Collective, to which selected guests are sometimes invited. In between these meetings communication is continuous by all the modern electronic means. Campaigns are initiated by volunteers who propose them and who are prepared to put the work in to make things happen.
The subsequent decade has seen considerable campaigning success, though it has only been achieved through patient and sustained long term effort.
A flagship campaign was aimed at persuading the police and Courts to stop treating innocent nudity as if it were illegal; when it is not, and never has been. This campaign was actually started by Duncan Heenan when he was a member of the BN Executive, but was abandoned by BN when he resigned. NAG resurrected this campaign and invited BN to join them, which they did. The campaign ran for about 10 years, and involved attending numerous court cases and extensive contacts with all the 43 police authorities in England and Wales plus their Police & Crime Commissioners, and long running negotiations with The Association of Chief Police Officers, and its successor organisation The College of Policing. The process eventually convinced the Crown Prosecution Service that the law was not being applied properly or consistently and so they (the CPS) issued Guidelines to Prosecutors for handling cases of naturism. This closely reflected the case that NAG/BN had been making, and made it clear that innocent nudity should not be prosecuted. However, that message was still not percolating down to front line police, so the campaign continued, and a further, and decisive, breakthrough came in a series of meetings with the newly formed College of Policing, who eventually agreed to incorporate the Crown Prosecution Service’s guidance principles into the Police National Decision Making Computer system. At this point of success, the campaign was interrupted by the illness of the BN representative, and when BN again took an interest they chose not to cooperate with NAG. However, the previous successful moves now made it inevitable that the College of Policing would issue its own Guidance and Decision Aid to officers and call handlers (which was largely a paper version of what was already in the Police National Computer), which it did shortly afterward. This official acceptance of the legal position, as a direct result of the NAG-led campaign, has led to a quantum leap in naturist freedom in the UK, and has made significant further freedoms possible.
Another major campaign, called The London Question, was initiated and run by John Paine from NAG’s inception, and is still running today. Despite being one of the largest and most sophisticated cities in the world, London has almost no facilities for naturism, and the campaign set out to address this. A number of approaches were followed, but prime among them was the aim of establishing the right, and practice, of using some of London’s parks for naked leisure. An extensive survey of London’s open spaces was undertaken and it was decided to start with Hampstead Heath as the most suitable park as a ‘test case’. There followed years of painstaking research and patient negotiation with the Hampstead Heath authorities, who were initially very hostile to the idea of naturism anywhere on Hampstead Heath. A NAG London committee was established to represent locally based naturists and to demonstrate local demand. The negotiations turned positive when the Crown Prosecution Service’s, and the College of Policing’s guidelines were issued, and the Hampstead Heath authorities eventually conceded that nudity was not illegal, and could not be made so by them. This advice was passed to Hampstead Heath staff, and the way became open for naturist use to start. In order to establish the practice of responsible naturism on The Heath, NAG London held several experimental naked picnics in the quieter areas, with no problems encountered. To firmly establish this as a tradition, a full season of monthly picnics was planned for 2020, but the Coronavirus lock-down made this impossible (along with most of normal life), but it is planned to reinstate the plan for 2021, and to use the Hampstead Heath precedent to establish naturist use of other parks in London, and other cities, also. As a part of establishing a campaigning community in London, NAG pioneered some Naked Pub Days in the city. This has provided both a witness to the demand for naturist facilities, and an invaluable platform for social networking which has led to other developments in The London Question; it has since been copied by other organisations.
Alongside these two successful ‘flagship’ campaigns, NAG has tackled numerous other issues including: Social Media; the portrayal (and misinformation) of naturism in the Press & media; support for local volunteer initiatives; academic study of the psychology and effects of naturism, including children (this involves NAG working with universities, the British Psychological Society and other naturist organisations); pressure on other naturist organisations to become more proactive in campaigning for naturist freedom; international research, liaison and cooperation; support of the World Naked Bike Ride organisations. NAG has been active in the press and in social media throughout in getting our message across to both the Authorities and to the general public. As a result of this patient and painstaking work, the attitude of The Authorities, the general public, and the press & media towards naturism and nakedness in general has become considerably more sympathetic, and freedom to live as a naturist has grown.
