Stop smokers but allow the boats - Starmer's Britain is madness - Peter Bleksley

Overwhelmingly it was said with pride, because Britain was a free country, and millions had sacrificed their lives to keep it that way.

I never hear it said nowadays.

In order for us to enjoy what freedoms that do remain, we often have to be tolerant. In my car I’m very patient if I get stuck behind a cyclist or someone riding a horse.

So be it, it really isn’t a hardship. Occasionally my travel around London is inconvenienced by a loud preacher hollering into a microphone, or maybe a protest march or a gathering of some description, where people are often campaigning for something that I’m vehemently opposed to, but I know I’ll reach my destination eventually, so I suffer the noise or inconvenience without complaint to anyone, and get on with my day.

Likewise, if I’m walking around our beloved Danson Park with my wife, and the stench of cannabis wafts over us, which is a frequent occurrence, then we make a small detour, as we have a moan about the lunacy of our drug laws. We don’t rant, we don’t challenge the stoners, we simply walk on by.

In the eight weeks since Sir Keir Starmer became the Prime Minister, I’ve learnt a number of things about him that I didn’t know before.

A donor has bought him glasses and a suit. Not champagne glasses, (although he strikes me as the kind of socialist that might enjoy a drop), but the type that perch on your nose.

The suit he scrounged didn’t come from M&S, where you can pick up a smart, hard-wearing, jacket and trousers for less than £200. For future reference Prime Minister, they also do alterations, should you need them.

He has also been given complimentary tickets for football matches on no less than twelve occasions, and he’s copped freebies for a Taylor Swift concert.

It seems to me like those ever-present CHANGE banners that he stood in front of during the election campaign might have been a bit of a fib, because when it comes to freeloading, he seems a lot like some of his predecessors.

There also seems to be little change when it comes to leaks finding their way out of Downing Street.

This week The Sun reported that Starmer was bringing in legislation to outlaw smoking in places like pub gardens, and other areas where those of us who enjoy a gasper might congregate to partake in our expensive and life-shortening habit, something that I have always regarded as one of life’s true pleasures.

When questioned by journalists, he confirmed this was true, without presenting a shred of evidence that smokers gathering together for a natter and a fag, presented any danger to anyone other than ourselves.

But that doesn’t matter, because under this increasingly authoritarian government, more and more of us will have to comply with the diktats forced upon us, and believe you me, more pleasure-denying legislation is heading our way.

Oh, and before I go, a total of 1,350 migrants in small boats landed on our shores this week. Where’s the Starmer promised change I ask myself?