AS Acts go, the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act of 2005 isn’t a great read and Section 23, which focuses on the free distribution of leaflets in public places, isn’t even its most exciting segment.

But it’s fairly clear that the protestors told they faced a £60 fine for handing out leaflets outside the Royal Bank of Scotland were on fairly solid ground in their assertion that they were acting within the law.

The quartet staged the town centre demonstration to highlight the £1.1 billion paid out by RBS in bonuses. It was hardly a riot, with just four turning up to make their point.

But the council aplogy for getting the original threat wrong does throw up some interesting thoughts about the Act.

“It is an offence to distribute, commission or pay for the distribution of free literature without consent in a designated area. Material distributed for charitable, religious and political purposes is exempted from the offence.”

So effectively, I can print up leaflets saying the ruling Coalition is an absolute shambles, I could wax lyrical about my favourite religion and show you unpleasant photos of animals being experimented upon or mistreated in an effort to support a charitable cause.

Yet if I were to print up 1,000 leaflets with the words ‘Be Nice To One Another’ and give them out in Bournemouth Square, chances are somebody would want to fine me.

What a wonderful world...