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What could be nicer than a bottle of wine shared with friends over a picnic in the park on a summer's afternoon?
My local south London patch of green, Brockwell Park, is full of such scenes on summer weekends - groups of up to 20 twenty-and thirty-somethings, with kids, buggies circled around the edge of the picnic rugs like a wagon train.
But not for long, it seems: Lambeth council is set to ban alcohol in all public places.
A Lambeth official predicts that its plan for a "Controlled Drinking Zone" will come into force later this year: it will effectively ban the drinking of alcohol in public throughout the borough.
Almost without anyone noticing, similar bans have sprouted across the country.
A number of London councils - including Brent, Hammersmith & Fulham and Harrow - already have borough-wide bans, while many others ban drinking in designated areas.
Elsewhere, Nottingham is reportedly on the verge of a city-wide ban.
Lambeth and others defend these measures as a response to drink-fuelled anti-social behaviour.
And God knows, we could do with fewer people making a drunken nuisance of themselves - even if this is mercifully less of a problem in the capital than in many cities, and even if most of the drinking happens in pubs and clubs rather than on the street.
But the fact is, there's already a straightforward way of dealing with any such problems: it's called the police.
They have powers of arrest and charge for behaviour likely to occasion a breach of the peace, drunk and disorderly behaviour, threatening behaviour, criminal damage, and more.
The Met just can't be bothered to exercise these powers - or rarely.
In Lambeth, for example, it's perfectly obvious where the problem spots are - for instance Brixton Oval, in front of the Ritzy cinema.
At least before the bulldozers moved in to redevelop the area, it was almost invariably full of lowlife, swigging from cans, shouting abuse at each other and passers-by, and dealing drugs - in broad daylight.
If Lambeth wanted to tackle that they could film the evidence without even leaving their desks - the town hall overlooks the area - and get the cops to go in.
Likewise, if you wanted to stop late-night drunkenness in my neighbourhood, anyone local could name the pub and the club responsible for most of it.
Instead, the pen-pushers will use a blanket ban - a bureaucratic hammer to crack this fairly small nut.
It remains unclear what makes Lambeth think that the Met will bother enforcing new powers to confiscate alcohol, or stop people drinking, against anyone likely to give them trouble.
Likewise, it's hard to see council officials such as park rangers wading into groups of shouty crusties or teenage hoodies out on the lash.
No, instead they'll pick on easy targets who are unlikely to pick a fight - like middle-class picnickers.
Because while Lambeth insists that the controlled drinking zone does not itself make public drinking an offence unless told to stop by a police officer, we all know what the police do when granted any such new power.
They'll enforce it when they feel like it and when it's convenient, much as they've ludicrously tried to use anti-terror powers against peace campaigners.
Maybe the new "CDZ" - you just know councillors get a frisson of excitement when they dream up an acronym like that - won't make any real difference. Maybe I won't get my glass of red confiscated as I hand my children a sandwich.
But like ID cards, the ban just smacks of a busybody yet ineffectual state - sticking its nose into yet more public behaviour, at the same time as being too feeble to tackle those who really thumb their noses at the rest of society.
Reader views (3)
Macdangler
"no simple minded council moron ever tell me what to do" correct by all means feel free to drink at a bar, pub or in your own house / garden or many of the other places you can enjoy a drink but parks are not your own private space to do as you please, they are for everyone to enjoy. I am all for the the ban as I am sick of taking my kids down to the local park only for them to witness a bunch of drunken English yobs vandalising the swings. Is nothing sacred anymore.
- Dc, London, 05/10/2009 10:38
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The Police state is here. Please wake up everyone.
- Lucy, soho, 02/10/2009 15:16
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It really is pathetic. Honest people on a picnic are no problem whatsoever. I will not obey this ban ever.
If it comes to it, wine will be put into an Elderflower cordial bottle or anything else that comes to mind. No simple minded council moron, ever tells me what to do, especially as they are all on gold plated pension!
- Macdangler, Wimbledon SW19, 02/10/2009 14:50
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