Daily Mail Richard Littlejohn
13 spy cameras and a bag of nuts, squire
Pensioner Betty Wilbraham popped into her local for half a Guinness and a sandwich, only to be told that she wouldn't be served unless she removed her hat.
Bar staff at The Hereward, in Ely, Cambs, told her that CCTV cameras couldn't monitor her face properly.
Under normal circumstances, this could cheerfully be filed under You Couldn't Make It Up.
It seemed funny at first. But then I got angry. What kind of half-wit makes an 82-year-old stalwart of the WI remove her hat before she can take a glass of stout?
Step forward landlord Tony Love, who explained: "Mrs Wilbraham does not understand that the world is changing. It's all to do with the CCTV.
"We have 13 cameras inside the pub and we cannot be seen to be discriminating between the youths and the elderly people."
The world isn't changing that much. Officious berks like Mr Love have always been with us.
This only goes to show that Warden Hodges syndrome is alive and well in 2006.
Frankly, I wouldn't want to drink in a boozer which felt it necessary to install 13 - yes, 13 - cameras to keep customers under constant surveillance.
But there was one aspect of this lunacy which intrigued.
Mrs Wilbraham said she noticed a sign by the door which illustrated the kind of headgear prohibited, including baseball caps and top hats.
Top hats?
Baseball caps, I get. But who the hell does Mr Love think is going to run riot in his pub wearing a top hat - Lord Snooty and his pals?