I have been complaining for years that people who sell alcohol to minors have a lot to answer for, and yet (it seemed to me) they just got a slap on the wrist when they repeatedly got caught doing it. At last, and for the first time in Cambridgeshire, a

I have been complaining for years that people who sell alcohol to minors have a lot to answer for, and yet (it seemed to me) they just got a slap on the wrist when they repeatedly got caught doing it.

At last, and for the first time in Cambridgeshire, a shop-owner in Cambridge has had his licence suspended for repeatedly offending. He also got fined £4,000. With a bit of luck, that will start to make a few regular offenders think twice.

I want to make as much of this incident as possible. I am again trying to remember the famous French quotation about the Royal Navy hanging one Admiral Byng 'pour encourager les autres'.

Let us hope fervently that les autres are suitably encouraged in this case.