TODAY I was standing in the queue at my local Co-op. The man ahead, who looked over 18 and had a laptop computer slung over his shoulder, wanted to buy a small bottle of Smirnoff together with strawberries and cream. He was asked to produce ID. He showed his passport but because it was not in English, the woman on the till could not read it.

The woman sent for her supervisor who was also unable to read it. He then called for the manager who was also unable to read it either.

With the queue lengthening and getting restless, she said she had received instructions from head office that only a British passport or UK driving licence would be accepted as proof of ID. As a result this young man, who told me while this pantomime was going on that he had often bought alcohol in the Co- op before, was obliged to leave without his Smirnoff.

So now youthful-looking foreigners, shopping at the Co-op, are liable to be asked to do the impossible, ie produce a British ID. In this case the Co-op was lucky the young man went so quietly. Another person might not. He would have been within his rights, I expect, to accuse the supermarket of discrimination against foreigners. But what this case of political correctness gone bonkers also shows us is that some supermarket’s senior management do not think out the consequences of their instructions, or the ability of their employees to carry them out.

L PATEL Ramsay Road Oxford