Early April Fool?

One could be forgiven for thinking the press are a month early on this story.

Police roadblocks are being set up to catch drivers who are breaking the law – by smoking at the wheel of their company vehicle.

Council wardens and Essex Police will carry out random inspections across the county to look for evidence of illicit cigarette use.

They will even hunt for cigarette butts in the ashtrays and smell the air inside the vehicles in order to clamp down on the outlawed practice.

But no, it would seem that this really is happening.

My, aren't the people of Essex lucky to have a police force who have beaten crime so comprehensively that they have to scratch around trying to find someone, anyone, to prosecute, eh?

Err ...

So not so much an early April Fool yarn after all, more the taxpayers of Essex being taken for mugs.

Are these the 'frontline services' the police say are at threat? They are? Well, what's with all the scaremongery then?

Keep cutting those budgets and axing those jobs, Osborne. With every passing day comes more incontrovertible proof that there's still plenty of flab in the system.