From an article in The Sun..
“[Theme park Alton Towers] has banned adults from using pocket computers – so they spend more time having fun with their kids.
Any parent seen tapping on a PDA will have it confiscated by special wardens at Alton Towers.”
I tried to get my head around this – can you do that? The worst these Alton Towers people could say, assuming the park is private property, is “Please stop using your phone, or we will have to ask you to leave.” which is 100% acceptable. But they can’t just steal it from you by making up their own “rules” and expecting you to obey them even if they’re illegal. I wish we could all have that ability:
“Thanks for inviting us over, JSR.”
“No problem. Uh … thing is, though, there’s a new policy here that Annette and I get to have hot monkey threesome sex with your girlfriend, and you have to wait in the other room until we’re done, then bring me cheese sandwich.”
“What?!”
“Yeah. It’s a new rule. I just made it up. So, uh, cheese is in the fridge, bread is on the kitchen bench.”
“Well … I guess if it’s the rules …”
If anyone other than a police officer came up to me while I was answering a txt and said they were taking my phone, they’d get The Bash. Even if it was one of the rozzers, I’d (politely and respectfully) decline unless they could quote legislation that legalised their confiscation of it – and I don’t think such legislation exists.
Of course, this is printed in The Sun, which means that Alton Park have probably just put up a sign saying “Patrons of the park are politely requested to turn off cellphones.” and some yellow journalist has said “Story!” to themselves and run with it, making up “Special Wardens” and strict rules and cybernetic phone detector robots. Their editor, of course, removed the robots. Hell, robots are a whole other usable story all on their own!
Check The Sun next week.