10 June 2008

The perceived dangers of barbecue sauce

A Tesco store refused to sell barbecue sauce to a customer because it contained a tiny amount of alcohol and she couldn't prove her age. Claire Birchell, 25, was told she could not buy the Jack Daniel's barbecue sauce which has an alcohol content of 2 per cent.

Staff at the store in in Flitwick, near Bedford also refused to sell the bottle to her brother-in-law, Philip Dover, 27, who did have ID, because they believed he would just give the bottle to Miss Birchell.

Last month Tesco stopped selling alcohol to parents with their children in case they passed it on to the youngsters.

The supermarket chain defended the policy, saying it wanted staff to "err on the side of caution."


I believe the above would justify a label of "nanny state" mentality, rather than just simple bureaucracy. While looking up "nanny state" in Wiki, I ran across a link to a blog entitled "Nanny Knows Best" - a compendium of entries documenting the nanny state in Great Britain.

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