The time to be wary of what government is doing is always, hence why anyone in Boris Johnson’s Britain needs to watch very closely over the next few weeks. Because few politicians are as blatant in power grabs and unpopular policy pushes than those who won’t have to face an electorate again.

Home Secretary Priti Patel, who likes to send immigrants to that human rights bastion of Rwanda, wants drug users to be banned from going to nightclubs. Or more specifically, she wants to ban people with convictions for doing so from taking part in nightlife. She also wants to take away their passports – but have we heard all this before?

It turns out we have – almost exactly the same was announced last year. Patel has quite literally recycled a Boris Johnson policy announcement from a few months ago to a Sunday newspaper and pretended it was new. Quite how she plans to get this policy through parliament during the summer recess is unclear, as is whether she’ll even still be Home Secretary in a few weeks.

Then again, she might not actually need to. Because it turns out nightclubs already do what she wants them to do. Michael Kill, head of the Night Time Industries Association, explained it like this…

“The practice of banning people from licensed premises for drug possession or use has been in place for decades. Police forces and local authorities across the country promote a zero-tolerance drug policy within licensed premises on a localised basis.”

Will a new Conservative leader and Prime Minister bring new thinking and different ideas in this area? Ears To The House thinks you already know the answer to that – great news for right-wing journalists looking for a filler story, bad news for anyone hoping for actual policy…