This is almost too pathetic for words: Bluewater shopping centre is so concerned about “anti-social behaviour” that they have opted for the obvious solution: banning baseball caps and hooded jumpers from the premises.

A mall with a dress code? WTF? Clearly this is a sensible fashion diktat, but I’m not sure it’s going to deter yobs.

In all seriousness, though, there is a serious political point here that gets much more attention in the United States than it does here in Britain.

In America a huge amount of what was traditionally public space has been privatised through things like gated communities and shopping centres. As a result, the the civil liberties provisions of the Constitution, which apply only to state actors, apply less and less to the spaces in which people live most of their lives.

I’m not sure I’m ready to man the barricades — or appeal to the ECHR — for the right to wear my New Era 59Fifty, but clearly this is a step in the wrong direction as far as civil liberties are concerned.

Hat tip (pun intended): Turlough O’Bryen.