Meanwhile in Sarah Brady Paradise: Criminal Mastermind edition

So let’s imagine that you were running for the exalted office of  local police commissioner. Do you think that a brush with the law back in 1966 would bar you?

The Labour Party candidate due to stand in the Avon and Somerset police commissioner election has stepped down due to a previous criminal conviction.

Oh dear. What horrible crime did he commit all those years ago. Was he a killer? A kidnapper? A child molester? Did he talk in the theater?

Mr Ashford said that in 1966, aged 13, he was convicted of trespassing and being in possession of an offensive weapon.

An offensive weapon? Was he carrying a bazooka?

Recalling the details of his offence, Mr Ashford said a group of boys from his school had persuaded him to go out with them and “I felt I had little choice”.

He said: “We went to the railway embankment and I felt very uncomfortable about this.

“One of the lads pulled out an air gun and started shooting at cans. I never touched the air gun and felt unable to leave, as I was frightened at what might happen at school.

“A goods train passed and presumably the guard reported our presence to the police who arrived a short time later.

“The lads with the air gun ran away whilst I and two others froze and were arrested.”

Oh, my! He was a veritable criminal mastermind! A child, with an air gun, near a railway embankment.

Welcome to the world that the anti-gunners want us to live in. They are so paranoid about guns that they would have a man thrown off the ballot for police commissioner because they hate the idea that a couple of kids might get an air rifle and shoot at tin cans near a railway line.