I’m not sure why I started following the photographer Alastair Hilton on X. He’s right-ish politically, so perhaps the algorithm just blew him my way. But through the rising tide of online bilge, I still seek out and enjoy Hilton’s posts, mostly because he talks about pubs and posts pictures of cold pints on hot days.

Hilton has a narrowboat on the Thames in Chiswick and seems to half live in the bars along the river, so he was extremely cross about a recent proposal to remove the tables and chairs from the riverside, especially from his local pub, the Bell and Crown. Last week he posted a video in which he said that the word on the Chiswick street is that getting rid of the outdoor seating was the sneaky pet project of a local Green party councillor, Rick Rowe, who lives Thames-side with his boyfriend and dislikes the noise – though you’d have thought a local councillor would support a struggling pub.

The police need serious deprogramming, not a simple ‘reset’

The police need serious deprogramming, not a simple ‘reset’

Well, most of us are a long way from W4, and I wouldn’t dream of leading you down a rabbit hole into local Chiswick politics, were it not for the fact that soon after Hilton’s pub-seating tweet, two policemen visited him. They walked up to his table as he sat, as usual, outside with a drink, and very clearly warned him off tweeting about councillor Rick. Hilton filmed the whole weird encounter, and if you find him on X you can watch it online.

No crime had been committed, the lead cop agreed –........

© The Spectator