Pubs must bring back 'child-free' rules for one major reason

My desire to live anywhere except London is zero but if I were to have to move it would be to St Albans, specifically in the area served by the Lower Red Lion pub.

For it, and its landlord David Worcester, have shown an extremely welcome attitude towards the rights of adults, by putting up a sign outside the pub reading: “Dog-friendly, child-free.”

This has gone viral and needless to say has prompted numerous idiotic responses, including this one: “Why has it become socially acceptable to literally hate children?”

Here is the news: banning children from pubs does not mean that you hate them. It just means you are not treating them as the centre of the universe – and not before time too.

There was a time, not so long ago, when children were treated as children: namely small and young individuals with no life experience who would gradually learn about the world and one day, with maturity, would find their own place and make their own way in life.

But then something happened and children were suddenly turned into beings who had to be coddled and mollified at all costs.

Sadly, this has resulted in a generation of spoiled, entitled brats, expecting the world to run very much on their lines, every whim to be indulged, and every selfish and irrational quirk to be humoured.

This is also why we have a generation of spoiled and intolerant snowflakes: when they were young, no one ever told them to know their place and shut up.

Yes, they should be looked after, protected, nurtured and valued. And not all conform to the above: I have nephews, nieces and godchildren, all delightful to a fault.

But there are reasons that there are prohibitions on some types of behaviour when you are young (smoking, drinking, sex, driving, voting) and they are not only to protect the child but also to protect the rest of us from giving someone who is still immature an adult status.

Give children schools, playgrounds, love and affection, the works.

But don’t give them pubs.