Over on Counting Cats in Zanzibar, the proprietor has noted something.

All those who delight in the smoking ban in winter but moan about smokers in the beer garden in summer can take heart. Soon they won't need to put up with the smokers outside.

Why? Is smoking outside to be banned too? Not yet. Drinking outside is to be banned before that happens.

Some gems from the article:

There are now 712 zones, some covering vast areas where there is no record of disorder. There are city-wide bans in Coventry and Brighton, which cover even the quietest suburban streets.

Smokers used to have one railway carriage. Drinkers now face a similar restriction. Not troublemakers, note. Drinkers. Glass of wine with your picnic? No chance. It'll get you arrested.

Birmingham tried to introduce a city-wide ban but had to back down in the face of public opposition. Instead it is introducing the drinking zones gradually across the city.

The public didn't want it so they're introducing it on the sly anyway. Ah, the power we hand to the most cretinous in our midst is astounding.

...police are routinely ignoring Home Office guidelines and confiscating bottles of wine and beer from peaceful picnickers and other adults having a quiet drink outdoors. In some cases, drinks have allegedly been seized by police from adults who have just bought them from an off licence and are on their way home.

Yes indeed. Mere possession of a bottle of booze with intent to drink it is illegal now. Except it's not. Not really. Just as photography isn't illegal but you can be arrested for it anyway. The police and the pseudoplods now make up the rules as they see fit. It's only a matter of time before someone snaps and one of these idiots is found dangling from a lamp-post. Then the shit will really hit the fan.

Warwickshire police confiscated 150 cans and bottles of alcohol in two evenings during the annual Mop Fair in Stratford-upon-Avon last October, yet there was only one arrest for drunk and disorderly behaviour.

150 cans and bottles, one case of drunk and disorderly. Damn, he must have been seriously plastered.

“The law is clear that these powers should only be used to address nuisance associated with drinking alcohol in a public place, not to disrupt peaceful activities such as family picnics or to challenge people consuming alcohol who are not causing a problem. We expect local police forces to use common sense in the application of these powers,” a Home Office spokesman said.

They expect common sense? From the pseudoplods they've foisted on us? Common sense is not part of the selection procedure for these uniformed tyrants. A general desire to be a total swine is the only qualification required. As for the police, well, we've long since given up on most of them. And the local councils are staffed entirely by drooling, gibbering Bedlam rejects with as much capability for rational thought as a patch of gravel. Common sense? I don't think we can even call it that any more. It's become increasingly less common in recent years. Soon it must surely be known as 'rare sense' and be made illegal. If it hasn't already.

The Righteous have been allowed to control us for so long now that they think there are no limits. They can push and push and meet no resistance. They are looking at it the wrong way. Rather than pushing a compliant jelly, they are stretching an elastic band of patience. They will meet little resistance in doing it, just the same, but unlike the jelly they think they are pushing, which would eventually collapse, the elastic they are pulling will snap.

When it does, it will hit them in the eye. And once it snaps it cannot be mended.

I'm sure there are those who want us to riot, so they can have an excuse to impose even stricter controls. I have always thought it was a bad idea to give them the excuse and still do, although I now wonder whether they will be able to impose any controls at all when the public finally snaps. These ever-more-insane petty attacks have put the public in the position where they now see the councils, the police and especially the worthless tyrants in uniform known as C3POs or something equally irrelevant, as their enemy. Once they start to retaliate, are they going to listen to more pronouncements from those they already regard as the enemy?

It has already gone too far. The camel's back is creaking under the strain of one more straw, one more straw, one more petty and pointless little straw. It's proved to be a very strong back but that final straw is coming. Any day now.

The Righteous think it's funny to wait outside an off licence for someone who has bought a legal product and is carrying it home, then force them to open it and pour away the contents while they laugh. Dance, boy, dance for your master. When that elastic snaps they will see what real fury looks like and it will not be wearing a uniform and it will heed no rules. Fury calls no man master. Rage does not care what names you call it. Anger uses sticks and stones, not names.

One more tug on the elastic, Righteous. Keep pulling. Sooner or later, one of your petty little control freaks will pick the wrong target.

And then...