From the Independent’s Helen McCormack.

Baseball caps have been confined to the same socially unacceptable quarter as hooded tops by a chain of internet cafés, which is traying to ensure they will not be worn on their premises.

The accessory – as beloved of celebrities when dressing down as teenagers when acting up – gets in the way of addressing “deviant” or antisocial behaviour in easyInternetCafés, the company, owned by Stelios Haji-Ioannou, has declared.

Anyone carrying out anti-social behaviour in the unstaffed cafés while wearing a peaked cap cannot be effectively captured on CCTV cameras, the director of communications for Easy Group, James Rothnie, said yesterday. “The policy is designed to combat any anti-social behaviour in the cafés, whether that is loutishness, theft or any other form of activity that will impinge on the experience of all of our customers,” he said.

Easy Group follows many shops and shopping centres which have banned hooded tops since Bluewater shopping centre in Kent brought in a ban in May. Bluewater says the policy, which includes a ban on anything that can obscure a wearer’s identity, has reduced anti-social behaviour, citing a 23 per cent rise in shoppers in the month following the ban. A spokeswoman for the centre said the policy had only led to a “minimal” number of people being asked to leave the premises.

Perhaps Easy Internet cafes would be less likely locales for violence, vandalism, etc. if the company’s cheap, charmless owner Mr. Haji-Ioannou (above), saw fit to make toilets available for his patrons?