Weren't Our Police Once The Envy Of The World...?

There's an old joke that says Heaven is where the police are British, the cooks are French, the mechanics are German, the lovers are Italian and it is all organised by the Swiss. Whereas Hell is where the police are German, the cooks are English, the mechanics are French, the lovers are Swiss, and it is all organised by the Italians.

Sadly, I think I'd prefer the Germans:

With his white hair, wax jacket and glasses, 78-year-old Philip Clarkson Webb clearly ticked all the boxes any eagle-eyed policemen would mark as 'danger'.

And as he shuffled along the pavement towards them there was one thing above all they deemed to pose a threat - his walking stick.

The officers surrounded the retired classics teacher and informed him the 3ft wooden cane was an 'offensive weapon' and had to be confiscated.

Yup, you heard that right - they confiscated an old man's walking stick. The reason? He was near the climate protest and they thought he might be one of the demonstrators...

Mr Clarkson Webb duly handed it over, but the farce did not end there.

When he later went to collect it from his local police station in Southborough, Kent, with his police receipt, he was told it had been misplaced.

It took a string of phone calls for Kent Police to finally admit they had lost it and to offer to buy him a brand new one.

Well done, Kent Police. Another triumph for PR...

/golfclap.