If you decide that you want to have a few extra beers in your fridge, don’t go to Tesco to buy it with your children. Tesco has now banned parents from buying alcohol, even when they are with their own children.

Parents shopping with their own children are being refused alcohol by over-zealous supermarket staff – for fear they are supplying drink to minors.

Workers have been told not to serve adults accompanied by children in the latest crack-down on underage drinking.

However diligent shop staff are applying the letter of the law and refusing to serve parents who are on weekly shopping trips with their children.

What a stupid policy! You can’t revert to off-license laws because you will still have the same problem. Do you leave your kid in the car or home alone while you go purchase your alcohol? Then you have social services coming to visit you. Off-license or not, you can still purchase alcohol and give it to a kid later, outside the store or at home. Forcing people to purchase it alone isn’t going to change any of these situations.