HOW do you follow the thrills, spills and fireworks of Millennium Year's Eve? The dispiriting answer may be to shut all nightclubs and send revellers home.
In yet another example of our ludicrously antiquated licensing laws, New Year's Eve 2000 could be ruined by a rule drawn up three years before William Pitt the Younger became Prime Minister.
The Sunday Observance Act 1780 - hardly pertinent to modern, 24-hour society - prevents clubs from charging admission on their busiest night of the year.
Clubs could bypass the Act by allowing free entry but charging for a compulsory "goodie bag". It is absurd that such commercial gymnastics are necessary. Ministers should rewrite our licensing laws completely.
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