Cheers to Lords where they allow a bottle of wine per cricket spectator to be taken in along with as much picnic gear as you can carry.

Boo to all the other cricket test grounds where they take the sponsors cash to supply only the approved version of mildly alcoholic, fizzy, piss coloured liquid.

Banning people from consuming goods not purchased at the venue is pretty much the norm in most European countries (I have personally come across such policies in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands and Switzerland). That said, a lot depends on how relaxed the owners are about such things - I have known some to turn a blind eye as long as you purchase something, like a beverage to wash down your sandwich.

@ Leadballoon: The food and drinks policy at sports venues probably deserves an article of its own ;-)

This isn't just a jobsworth. It's an M&S, self-important, killjoy, head-up-his-own-bottom jobsworth. (Er, M&S are actually dropping that campaign. Ed)

Funnily enough, I have often smuggled M&S apple turnovers and raisin danishes into my local Odeon, safely concealed inside a freebie copy of the Manchester Evening News, the only use I have ever found for the paper. I have no wish to take out a small mortgage for the junkfood sold at the Odeon, but I regularly see people sporting wheelybin-sized buckets of sugared polystyrene, aka popcorn.

I have certainly bought croissants at a patisserie to eat with a cafe-au-lait bought in a french cafe (is that sentence pretentious enough?)

Seriously I think it is common in Europe to eat you own food while consuming a drink bought at the cafe / bar you are sitting at. Done it many times - not been told off once. I'm talking snacks here - not turning up with your own 3 course picnic.

Seems like an initially sensible rule - you wouldn't expect to take your own carry out into a pub - has been taken too far and turned into another profit centre i.e. not taking your own bottle of water into the cinema, and then applied by jobsworths with no brain.

The M&S cafe in a shop that sells other food especially cakes, sandwiches etc. (with the cafe sometimes next to the food dept|) has always seemed slightly odd and open to confusion.

Allowed?

The Wellington pub in central Birmingham allows you to bring in your own food and will even provide plates and cutlery.

Yes but if it were the Camerons or some of Lord Rose's mates from Annabels nothing would have been said surely ?

Try having a cheeky picnic in a slope-side restaurant in France and it will be death by chocolat. I can assure you.

However, the pubs on Whitecross Street in Clarkenwell, during market time and some around Borough Market are more than happy for you to bring in your burrito to be washed down wth a pint.

I went to the Odeon yesterday and noticed the sign said hot food and milkshakes purchased outside the cinema were not allowed. Presumably that means cold non-milk drinks and snacks of all kinds are permitted and I can stop trying to be stealth about them.

It's perfectly reasonable people stopping us from bringing in food from elsewhere, but something from the same store?! This is nuts.

I always sneak food into the cinema. And heaven help that dude with the little torch if he thinks he's going through my pockets.

I'm not sure about the biccie question but I don't think you should be allowed to work as a sub-editor on The Gruaniad and confuse allowed and aloud as in the caption to this blog!

In Bavaria customers have a long-standing (ie centuries old) right to consume their own food at the outside tables of the beer gardens as long as you're supping their beer -- and by own food this can mean bringing several cycle-towed trailers laden with food and setting up a picnic for 20 on neighbouring bench tables. Believe me we saw this once and were gobsmacked

I think it should be 'allowed' as long as customers have bought something like a sandwich or coffee. I do it all the time I just don't make 'aloud' noise about it.

Get the idea subs the use of 'allowed' and 'aloud' in a sentence doh!

I know that the story of the 86 year old eating a biscuit is true - it happens to be my aunt - and she had purchased a lunch prior to eating the biscuit!

M&S need to do some work on their PR as their response to her plight was absolutely appalling ...

fascist bully boys.

Im still stunned that they were going to call the security in to deal with an 86 year old woman... what did they think she was going to do exactly ?

C'mon Hilary Osborne, speak to your online sub-editors. This aloud / allowed typo is way beyond embarrassing. It verges on illiteracy. Get it sorted for goodness sake.

Actually it's probably nowt to do with M&S per se, it'll be the overzealous private security guards they'll be employing to patrol their caffs

@ RichardMorris

and the wellington has some great beers!! we even had a pizza delivered there once and the barstaff just laughed at us!

In Dave's more caring society this woman would either have been crucified or sent to a work camp in Siberia for life.

I for one look forward to May the 6th.

It took 24 hours but at least they've finally corrected it!

Most (if not all) of the pubs on Place Jourdan in Brussels positively encourage you to bring in chips bought from the chips stand in the middle of the square to enjoy with your beer, with signs indicating chips are accepted. This is a very good thing. The chips are the best in Brussels and the pubs know they can't compete in terms of snack quality. And popping out for a bag of chips probably encourages you to order another round of drinks anyway.
Belgian beer and chips is such a gastronomic delight I have been known to entertain work contacts in this manner.

Searching bags at the cinema? I'm afraid that place would never see my custom again I can tell you. And I don't take food in with me, hidden or openly. But where do they draw the line - are they going to ban my cough sweets? I can't see a problem if you've paid for something, it doesn't take any longer to drink a coffee bought in the place and eat a biscuit bought elsewhere than just drinking the coffee. Obviously if you've bought nothing at all in the cafe that's different.
If cinemas are not financially viable without the proceeds of buckets of popcorn and cola then that's the problem they need to address, by something olre fundamental than trying to force people to buy said popcorn and cola by banning anything else, even water.

Regarding the need to avoid exhorbitant cinema food prices by smuggling in your own: I hear that it is possible to sit through a film without eating anything. I mean, how many calories do you actually need to sit on your fat arse for 90 minutes doing precisely nothing?