A mysterious raid on my local pub, where most of the customers are pensioners

On 9 May, at 2pm, I will attend Camberwell Green Magistrates' Court to give evidence in support of Mr and Mrs Mitchell, landlords of the Angel pub on Coldharbour Lane, Brixton. The Brixton police have initiated proceedings to have the pub's licence revoked on the grounds that Class A drugs were found on the premises during a police raid on 23 March. The Angel has been my local for close to 12 years. On several occasions, I have written in this column about the moods and moments therein, with particular reference to our little parliament, convened among regulars to discuss the pressing issues of the day.

An hour and a half before the police raid on the premises, I met Mrs Howe in the pub on her way back from work. On drugs raids, women are sometimes dragged away and stripped naked to be body-searched. Fortunately, this did not happen to Mrs Howe. I shudder to think what I would have done if it had. "There are things," my father used to say, "that a man should die for."

Nobody, not even the landlord, admits to seeing the drugs that were allegedly discovered on the premises. The Angel, the only black pub left in Brixton, is patronised mainly by pensioners. Ninety per cent of the clientele are retired workers, men and women. During every single year that I have been there, at least six regulars have passed on. Notices of these deaths are displayed on the walls with information about times and places for the funerals. This does not seem a good market for Class A drugs; there would be a better market, I would guess, for Viagra.

But who knows what information the police had? We convened the parliament to discuss this urgent issue. There are two schools of thought. One - which must surely be dismissed instantly - is that the police have one of their friends lined up as a replacement for the Mitchells. Another explanation is that a malicious and disgruntled client is being mischievous or, as my favourite parliamentarian puts it, "wicked".

A name was suggested and we agreed unanimously on the person. "Yes," said one of our members. "Is only him would do something like that." Apparently, this man received a blow from a cue stick after suggesting to a pool player that he should go off and have oral sex with his mother. The man had no satisfaction from the landlord, and I felt that he deserved what he got. He left that day abusing one and all, and threatening that he would have the pub closed down.

If this is true, the Brixton police need not have acted in such a drastic way. A visit from the head of community relations, warning the Angel landlord of what had been said, would have put the whole matter to rest.

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