With my reviewing duties at Oxford Playhouse on Tuesday over within an hour, I was out on the town in plenty of time for dinner. This being ‘steak night’ at J.D. Wetherspoons, there could be no better venue for us than The Four Candles in George Street, a pub named in honour of Ronnie Barker who was educated nearby. A pair of fine sirloin steaks and a bottle of Hardy’s Shiraz proved a snip at £17.99.

Returning home to The Times, I read that this admirable pub group is under attack from a bunch of ghastly killjoys over its plans to open a £2m bar and restaurant at a service station on the M40 near Beaconsfield.

Though there have been no objections from Thames Valley Police or the local authority, a woman called Carole Whittingham has asked for the licence to be revoked.

She is described by The Times as “founder” of the Campaign Against Drinking and Driving, clearly another of those busybody pressure groups which, thanks to the media’s absurd need to ‘balance’ stories, are given undeserved respect for their loony views.

She says: “Given how freely available alcohol already is, this doesn’t make any sense. It hasn’t been thought through. It’s an accident waiting to happen.”

Doesn’t she realise that car drivers each day pass dozens of pubs, without any compulsive need to patronise them and to drink alcohol?

It is their passengers who might enjoy a glass of beer with their meal, and they should be allowed to do so. I hope that Wetherspoon boss Tim Martin and his team see off this ludicrous objection.