I was initially amused to see that there was a thread running through BBC Breakfast TV this morning concerning whether Lymington was snobby and elitist. And why? Because the planning application for a J D Wetherspoon pub had been rejected.

I say ‘initially’ amused as I have been astonished at the volume and tone of comment and debate generated by the item. Regrettably a lot has been ill-informed with people making good use of their pre-formed prejudices to come to their conclusions. So without further ado I will add my ill-informed prejudices to them.

I’m not sure the interview I saw with a member of the Lymington Society arguing that the character of the town would be ruined was possibly the best choice of argument against the pub. In a town with a number of national high street shops, restaurants and coffee shops

Every so often we have assembled a shopping list long enough to necessitate a visit to the West Quays shopping centre in Southampton. It’s kinda spread out a bit with warehouse-style shops until you get to the main consumer cathedral where Marks & Spencer and John Lewis are to be found. As far as I am concerned when it comes to shopping, there’s really not much to say other than we got what we went for and returned unscathed. Not a participatory sport in my book. Actually we found that late afternoon on a regular weekday in December is a heck of a good time to shop at M&S. According to the checkout guy there had been queues way back along the shop floor from the checkouts at around 3pm, but we had no-one in front of us at around 5pm. My kind of queuing.

So what do you do apr