Burnham allowing councils to refuse permission to vape shops will get lots of cheering from the gallery. There'll be reminders that thousands of pubs and shops closed and now town centres are filled with garish sweet shops, vape sellers and adult gaming. All we'll be told because councils can't block these shops. The outcome won't be better high streets or nicer town centres. Officious councils will go back to making aesthetic judgements about shop fronts, to banning shutters and trying to control what people are able to sell to you. The decline of your high street isn't the fault of government. It is your fault. You did it. Your mum and dad did it. For sure the government hates pubs and would prefer the remining few didn't sell alcohol but those other shops went because you preferred the convenience of the supermarket, the range of the big box store, the sprawling mall with free parking. And then you fired the last bullets into the Hugh streets and town centres by using your phone, sat snugly on your sofa, to order groceries and knick-knacks, all the things there was once a shop for on your High Street for. It was you. You killed the high street. Nobody else. But you'll cheer as councils get to make vape shops have better signage and dark places filled with slot machines get banned. Instead there'll be more boarded up shops, more old retailers limping towards a sad retirement. We'll get attempts to save the high street by the council paying to create a "community hub" or a "culture centre" that quickly becomes a set of cheap meeting rooms nobody uses with a bad café that's only sustained by its managers holding out a begging bowl. If you want a better high street or a thriving town centre, the only thing that will make this change is you spending your money in your high street. And that isn't going to happen because you get more choice at a better price from that black rectangle in your pocket or handbag. It is your fault.