Christopher Howse

So were the Noughties nice?

Not really, says Christopher Howse. The decade started with a bang, and continued in a half-awake fantasy punctuated by anxiety. The most that can be said for it is that it was short

issue 02 January 2010

Outside my local pub it says in big letters ‘£500’, and underneath: ‘This is the fine if you take your drink out into the street.’ What law imposes this fine, no one knows. It could be something to do with 24-hour drinking legislation, or even anti-terror laws.

The reason people want to take their drinks into the street is that they’d like a cigarette, which they cannot have in the pub, under another law.

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