Baffling barbecue ban

After the travails of the past few months, one would be forgiven for thinking that Britain has heard enough about bans and fines to keep us going for at least a decade. But Canterbury City Council evidently feels differently. In a bid to curb “anti-social behaviour”, it is proposing a blanket ban on glass bottles and barbecues on local beaches, leading to fears that well-behaved beachgoers may be fined £100 for having a glass of wine and a picnic on the waterfront on the rare occasions the weather is warm enough to attempt such an activity. Why these councillors, who claim they have no intention of “killing fun”, believe that barbecues are necessarily anti-social is hard to fathom. Unless you happen to have been born a piglet, they are generally considered to be quite the opposite.