Another thing has rattled my cage this week - the proposals to allow 24 hour drinking. Now, don't get me wrong, as you well know I am somewhat partial to a glass of wine, but for a government hell bent on controlling us all as if it were 1984, the suggestion of 24 hour drinking from President Toni and his chums does seem rather odd.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph Boris Johnson is of the view that as a nation we should be less boastful about getting plastered all the time and whilst he thinks the proposals might slow down the binge drinkers, he does admit the consequences.

Quoted in Johnsons' article, Judge Charles Harris QC said: "The situation is already grave, if not grotesque, and to facilitate this by making drinking facilities more widely available is close to lunacy. It simply means that our towns and city centres are abandoned every night to tribes of pugnacious, drunk, noisy, vomiting louts. The cost to the health services must be vast. The cost to those who try to live civilised lives in urban surroundings is huge."

The judge pointed out that a huge proportion of crime is drink-related, and then - to the BBC - made the crucial observation. He remarked that it was all very well talking about a new café-style culture, where we all sit around like Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, drinking slowly and moderately as we formulate new philosophical aperçus; but Britain couldn't have a Continental approach to licensing laws until we had a Continental approach to drink.

Hear Hear. For once the Froggies have it right.