Cheers!!

Am I alone in thinking that these days the freedoms we take for granted are under threat. Not as a result of some later day Orwellian totalitarian police state but rather as a result of  a succession of rather mean spirited and more trivial restrictions.  Nanny state stuff. Smoking bans, responsible drinking campaigns, CCTV cameras and so on. All of it possibly with some merit but sometimes perhaps enforced disproportionately. 

But in a development reminiscent of Passport to Pimlico (from which the still above is taken) comes this really heartening snub to the massed ranks of petty officialdom. Its  concerns the story of a pub in Barnsley that claims to have found a loophole in the smoking ban.  By designating a separate room as a "Smoking Research Centre", they then invite customers desirous of a cigarette with their pint to first complete a survey which  asks them about their smoking habits post the ban. Having done so they can then have then have their nicotine and alcohol fix. Custom at the pub - which was struggling and up for sale - has soared. 

I think this is a brilliant and enterprising initiative, the British at their best. Suffice to say the forces of petty officialdom in the form of the Local Authority are winding up for a swift and decisive counter-offensive to put paid to this impertinence.  Shame! Killjoys!!

Margaret Rutherford, Stanley Holloway: where are you when we need you?