Piston Broke

A man was brought before us having been found staggering and occasionally falling over along a busy dual carriageway one night. He was arrested for his own safety and put in a cell to sober up.
I cast a weary glance over the court list and I saw that he had been charged under the Licensing Act 1872. I looked it up when I got home on the ever useful lawindexpro site and found this:-

12. Every person found drunk in any highway or other public place, whether a building or not, or on any licensed premises, shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding level 1 on the standard scale.

I could not help reflecting on the fact that our Government has spent more than a decade and a lot of money in a legislative frenzy trying to clamp down on the unruly populace, when perfectly serviceable Victorian statutes like this are are still available.

(later) Here's a similar point I made a 18 months ago:-

I have complained time and again over the Government's habit of passing new (and usually useless) laws every time that something alarms the tabloids. Now we have a serious, albeit bungled, attempt to blow up a lot of people and what do we read? The first man to be charged has been charged under the 1883 Explosive Substances Act. I rest my case.