Hamish Champ: Is this a pub or a creche?

I was in my local boozer in South East London on Saturday evening enjoying a few pints. Well, I think it was my local boozer, only the number of toddlers running about the place did make me wonder.

Across from the pub in question is a church hall in which a group of under-7s was putting on a play. I'm not sure what the work was about, but several of the little darlings were dressed in grey head-to-toe body suits, some with tails, while others' faces were adorned with paints of varying hue to resemble, well, I don't know what exactly.

Anyway, there I was, sitting atop a bar stool, listening to a friend wax lyrical about the latest Parliamentary developments to do with the licensed trade - namely the Business & Executive Committee review into the pubcos - when our reverie was shattered by high-pitched screams and shrieks of delight as half a dozen little Tamsins, Penelopes, Tarquins and Harrys came in with their mums and dads and proceeded to chase each other through the legs of assembled drinkers.

If they weren't marauding through the pub's small lounge area they were running amok in the establishment's not-terribly-big garden.

Now, regular readers will know I'm cool with kids in boozers. I'm happy to take my eight year old into a pub. Indeed he was with me on this occasion. But he knows how to behave and, more importantly, how not to behave in what is an adult environment.

The parents of the wee ones haring about the pub on Saturday night clearly were at the 'let them express themselves' end of child-rearing. No-one said anything, and eventually the youngsters were herded out of the pub and into their parents' 4-wheel drive monsters. Peace at last.

I don't mind easy-going parenting, but when in the adult world - which a pub is - I wish the tree-hugging types would hold onto their saplings a bit harder.

Not that we were above making a bit of a hoo-hah either. After the Year 3 theatrical troupe had traipsed out our lot went into the garden and proceeded to start up a sing-song that would have been audible in Birmingham. Oh what a few pints of cask ale will do for a man…

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According to one of many readers who posted comments on our numerous online smoking ban-related stories last week, the "anti-smoking lobby is heading for a backlash as people are simply tiring of their preaching authoritarianism".

I'm puzzled. Just how will this backlash manifest itself? Thousands of smokers trawling the streets for non-smokers to rush up to in order blow second-hand smoke into their faces?

C'mon gang. You might not like the ban, but until your dreams come true and another government repeals it (UKIP anyone?) why not focus your efforts on working round it somehow.