My Hero!

I can do no better than to quote from the BBC. My entire and utter hero tonight. I am merely consumed with unholy envy that I was not the one (though you are welcome to believe I was). Makes you proud to be British and to be a British clergyman:


Vicar's unholy smoke stunt fails

A vicar who lit his pipe in a Kent police station as a protest against the smoking ban has failed in his attempt to get himself arrested. The Reverend Anthony Carr, of East Peckham, walked into the station in Tonbridge, asked to report a crime and then started smoking.

He said he flouted the ban to protest against the erosion of civil liberties. Kent Police said they did not arrest the Holy Trinity church vicar because it was an environmental health issue.

Mr Carr said: "I said to the officer 'I want to report a crime' and I took out my pipe and lit it. He said 'Will you please put that out as this is a no smoking area' and I said 'I will not'."

When officers told him he would not be "bundled into" the back of a van he said "what a pity".

Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council said the law protected public health and they would follow up any reports of the smoking ban being broken.

A spokesman for the Bishop of Rochester said: "We regard this as a personal matter - the church would not wish to comment on the incident. Officially, the church doesn't condone breaking the law."