Let’s face it red tape is to blame for many facetious rules and regulations that seem to blight our everyday lives. Sometimes we are told it is in the name of equal opportunities, health and safety or for the protection of the young. But whether it exists for the soundest of reasons or not there are times when one can only marvel at the daft effect some policies have on the real world. A case in point: the regulations surrounding the supply of intoxicating liquor to minors. Admirable regulations they may be for ensuring that the young are protected from direct access to the potentially harmful effects of alcohol yet sometimes we can only laugh at the ways these regulations are interpreted. A friend recently went to do some shopping at a local supermarket on a Saturday morning with his 21 year-old daughter. They arrived at the self-check tills and were confronted by a zealous cashier who asked if they had proof of age in order to purchase the wine in their shopping trolley. The daughter said she had nothing on her so the cashier said they could not purchase the wine they had chosen. Dad explained that the wine was for himself and his 21 years old daughter had driven him to the supermarket indicating the plaster on his arm as testimony to the fact it was broken.
Let’s face it red tape is to blame for many facetious rules and regulations that seem to blight our everyday lives. Sometimes we are told it is in the name of equal opportunities, health and safety or for the protection of the young. But whether it exists for the soundest of reasons or not there are times when one can only marvel at the daft effect some policies have on the real world. A case in point: the regulations surrounding the supply of intoxicating liquor to minors. Admirable regulations they may be for ensuring that the young are protected from direct access to the potentially harmful effects of alcohol yet sometimes we can only laugh at the ways these regulations are interpreted. A friend recently went to do some shopping at a local supermarket on a Saturday morning with his 21 year-old daughter. They arrived at the self-check tills and were confronted by a zealous cashier who asked if they had proof of age in order to purchase the wine in their shopping trolley. The daughter said she had nothing on her so the cashier said they could not purchase the wine they had chosen. Dad explained that the wine was for himself and his 21 years old daughter had driven him to the supermarket indicating the plaster on his arm as testimony to the fact it was broken. Jobs-worth immediately retorted with, “You needn’t pick on me, if you’ve no proof of age you can’t take the wine!” A patient man, he told his daughter to return the wine to the shelves he then suggested that his daughter go and wait in the car and send his mother in to the shop. He paid for the remaining goods and waited until his mother arrived and she went with him to get some wine which she planned to pay for. As she approached the tills the aforementioned cashier, having obviously been stalking my friend throughout, appeared with the shop supervisor, another keen jobsworth, who told them that as they had ‘already been refused service once’ they couldn’t buy the wine. My friend’s mother, who was not a patient woman, repeated that ‘she’ had not been refused service and added that her grand-daughter was of the age of consent and she was at that moment outside driving the car as they were welcome to observe. On top of this she pointed out to them that the wine they were buying was in fact labelled non-alcoholic! It was however not until they insisted on seeing the store manager did they have any success escaping with their purchase. That wasn’t even the end of the tale because they had forgotten that the wine they were purchasing was one on special offer and they had a voucher, offering a 75 pence saving, which had been sent to their daughter by the supermarket chain in the first place!
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