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Most countries have laws to protect littlies against the the double demons of alcohol and nicotine.

(Some places even go to the other extreme, but that’s another story…)

Ursula von der Leyen, Germany’s Family Minister (and – with 7 kids – eminently well qualified for the job) came up with a useful policing idea.

By the media and political reaction, it also appears to be quite novel, in that no-one in the past appears to have thought to find out how kids are getting the stuff, but anyway..)

You recruit kids who are marginally under the legal age for purchasing fags and booze, team them up with a grown-up (who lurks about in the background with the handcuffs) and send them out to see if retail outlets are IDing adequately.

Bloody hell!

You would have thought she was sending them off to child slavery or into the clutches of the neighbourhood paedophile.

“Outrageous! Corrupting our children!” Wuggawugga. Rant Rant

So the chattering classes all agreed it wasn’t a good idea, Ursula took the idea back to the drawing board and things have quietened down.

I see an opportunity here.

I have a bit of time on my hands and I wouldn’t mind drifting around, trying to buy alcohol and cigarettes and seeing if I get IDed.

Might even get some free samples.

So I shall be applying to Ursula for one of these unfilled jobs.

If they turn me down, I’ll sue on the grounds of age discrimination.