A peculiarly British crime, it seems

Fox has the story behind the arrest of Christian Bale in London for assaulting his mother. Seems she was dissing his wife (not a wise thing when your son loves his wife) and he said some nasty things to her. Seems, too, that merely doing so, at least in the UK, can get you arrested for what can only be called a prissy English crime. In England there are two classes of verbal assault, Class 4 and Class 5. Class 4 is more aggravated than 5, with 'an intent to cause alarm'.
"Christian was stressed, but he didn’t lay a finger on anyone. Instead, he flew off the handle and cussed his mother," a source said. "He just got very loud because his mother was saying some very outrageous things about him, and his wife. Christian's attitude is that this was his mother's fault because she became very provocative in an argument they were having," the source added. "Things got out of control and he now says he wishes he just left the room." The incident apparently comes at a time when his marriage to Sandra Blazic, a former model and makeup artist and the mother of the couple's young daughter, is enduring difficulties.

Rico says he'd have gone down for Class 4 verbal assault any number of times, especially when his marriage was 'enduring difficulties'. The Brits, however, have become such pussies... (Winston Churchill probably committed Class 5 every time he opened his mouth and Class 4 every time he made a speech in Parliament with 'an intent to cause alarm'.) And, with this strange British reverse-numbering system, what the fuck is a Class 1 offense?