Get out the red pen for th statute book

I like to fantasise on dog walks about what I would so if I were, even briefly, in charge of the country. If I have an opinion, I must test it and try to think about ramifications.

My latest idea is that upon entry to number 10, my first priority would be to rebuild a healthy idea of community, to rescue it from the nightmarish Thatcherite 'community of one' inhabited by the poor benighted youth of some hellish quarters of this land.

My first act in this regard, and it would not be quick, would be to go through the statute book with a thick red pen and get rid of anachronistic, outdated or superceded laws and then enforce the relevant and effective laws which remain.

Let's take the rash of drunken assaults which have seen such tragic, brutal, bestial murders committed by young people recently.

Under the Licensing Act of 1872, you can be done for drunkenness in a public place Let's enforce that, (but we could lose the extra penalties which apply if you're drunk in charge of a bicycle, pigs, sheep, cattle and/or a steam engine). The same act stipulates that you should not be drunk in a Public House; it would be nice to see bar staff refusing to sell drinks to drunks. It used to happen. When I was serving in a bar in the 80s we'd routinely refuse to serve drunks. Forfeiting profits, sure, but also preventing violence and a really bad reputation. (Martin was recently in the US and was impressed to see a barman refusing to serve some drunk people in a bar; impressed by the attitude of the barman, but also of the drunks, who after trying a couple of times to get friends to appear sober and buy drinks, acceped the ban and went away. Here barmen would be frightened of violence.)

The threat of violence could be dealt with under the same act with the charge of 'Drunkenness with aggravation': If you're drunk and threatening you can be charged for drunkenness with aggravation by refusing to leave a licensed premises when requested, and for being drunk and disorderly - a broad term and a useful one. The moment a drunk lout yells at an old lady or a lady in a burqa or whoever else they could be picked up on a drunk and disorderly charge. Or one of public drunkenness, or if they're under 18 then their alcohol should be confiscated and their parents troubled as stipulated under the 1997 Confiscation of Alcohol (Young Persons) Act.

And come down like a ton of bricks on shops which sell alcohol to kids, and come down like an equally large ton of bricks on gangs of kids who intimidate shopkeepers into selling them booze. And make sure that police are alert to emergency calls from shopkeepers. If you can't stop illegal supply of booze through legal outlets, then you must expect that the ramifications will be a widespread disregard for minor laws, and, by extension, major laws and the law itself.

So much more to say but I have to go to work...