One day into the fag ban in England and Wales, and we already see Nanny's chums in our "respected" local councils doing their bit to push their intrusive noses into people's private lives and to go beyond the law.Councils have decided to extend the indoor smoking ban to playgrounds and parks.
that's not all, Nanny's chum Sir Liam Donaldson, the chief medical officer, has signalled the start of a wider campaign to make smoking socially unacceptable. The Department of Health is likely to force cigarette manufacturers to carry picture warnings on packets showing the health effects of smoking, which may include images of blocked arteries.
I find it a bit rich that doctors keep banging on about what we eat and drink, given that they are notorious for being at the top end of the statistics for alcohol, fag and substance abuse in this country.
It should be a case of physician heal thyself!
Anyhoo, disregarding our alcoholic substance abusing chums in the medical profession, Nanny's best chums in local councils in Middlesbrough, Cleveland and Derwentside, Co Durham have decided to go beyond the law and have imposed smoking bans on open-air spaces such as municipal playgrounds.
NOTE...
THESE BANS ARE NOT LEGALLY ENFORCEABLE
I WILL REPEAT
THESE BANS ARE NOT LEGALLY ENFORCEABLE
It would seem that local councils no longer give a stuff about the law, and are now openly contemptuous of people's freedoms and liberties.
What does this tell us about the sort of individual who stands for council???
By the way folks, if you think that being banned from smoking in parks is bad...may I acquaint you with Professor John Britton?
Britton is chairman of the tobacco advisory group, at the Royal College of Physicians.
He has decreed that smoking in front of children is child abuse.
Quote:
"If the child is being seriously affected
then you would need to establish that for
the individual child and take action."
Excuse me?
What the fark does "take action" mean?
How unbelievably arrogant and unpleasant!
The state, doctors and councils need to be reminded that they are not on this planet to tell us what to do or to dictate to us.
Here are a few email addresses for you to vent your spleens upon:
-contactcentre@middlesbrough.gov.uk
-paul_stenson@redcar-cleveland.gov.uk
-Derwentside
-j.britton@virgin.net
These people will do the same with booze and food next, mark my words.
Ken,
ReplyDeletemy dear wife has persuaded (forced) me to agree to take part of our Summer Holiday back in the good old UK.
I managed to negotiate her down from 3 weeks to 5 days, but in the end, accepted the inevitability. As a smoker, I am not looking forward to being made to feel like a social pariah (or worse) back on my own turf.
I feel a bit like someone about to visit a terminally ill relative in hospital: I really don't want to do it, but feel that I should, although I'd rather remember her as she used to be.
In the three years since I was last at home, all I see in the media and blogs and hear from visitors REALLY makes me want to cry; I don't want to see the country that I belong to laying helpless while its beliefs, traditions and culture are raped.
I love the old country, but I really don't see how I can live there any more, any more than I could live with a favourite Auntie who had been forced into prostitution; although I don't suppose anybody but me and my immediate family gives a stuff about that.
Why - other than 'because they can' - are these bastards turning MY homeland into an extended concentration camp; why are they, apparently, so determined to destroy all those freedoms that generations of patriotic Englishmen have fought and died for? Why was I stupid enough (in retrospect) to believe that giving five years of my life to the RAF was my patriotic duty and - in some tiny way - helped to guarantee the democratic future of Britain?
I would say to Andy and participants in the previous blog, it's not about fags or guns or booze or nose-picking or masturbation, or any of the other individual, relatively harmless vices that most of us indulge in from time-to-time, it's about principles. And once the principle is established, that we can have our freedoms removed by some know-nothing prick of a Council clerk 'for our own good', we - and the country - are fucked.
Every time some unthinking pillock says, "If you've nothing to hide, you've nothing to fear", or accepts that government statistics 'prove' something, or shrugs when someone else's liberty is threatened because, "...it doesn't really affect me...", or says "Bloody hell, what will they think of next?",the jumped-up little fascists get that much closer to their ultimate victory.
[Ken, as I have unfortunately, never had to say to a woman; sorry about this being so long]
Grumpy,
ReplyDeleteI sympathise. Nicely written.
If you are really lucky you may find the country closed by terrorist threats when your holiday is scheduled. There could be no better excuse to abort the visit could there?
Grant
Grant, tft,
ReplyDeleteGiven the choice between sorting out terrorism or telling my wife she can't go home, I think I'd prefer to invade Iran single-handed.(At least, you can still smoke in Teheran).
Grumpy, I hear ya! I moved to Texas in 2000 and all I've heard from family/friends or read in the UK news (and on this site) makes me want to cry too.
ReplyDeleteGrumpy wrote:
ReplyDelete"Given the choice between sorting out terrorism or telling my wife she can't go home, I think I'd prefer to invade Iran single-handed.(At least, you can still smoke in Teheran). "
Ah, you have one of those as well then.
The thing is that if your timing is good the message comes from Gordon Brown rather than yourself.
The best option is that the disappointed one makes the decision for herself based on persnal dread (it's more permanent like that) but a good second best is top blame Nanny. especially a new Nanny.
Grant
Grant said,
ReplyDelete'Ah, you have one of those as well then.'
Are you telling me that they make them with different minds?
Shit, something else I've missed out on.
Anyway, thanks for the advice, since reading your post, I've casually mentioned a couple of times how dangerous UK airports seem to be nowadays. She doean't seem to have sussed anything.....yet.
grumpy said...
ReplyDelete"Grant said,
'Ah, you have one of those as well then.'
Are you telling me that they make them with different minds?"
Sometimes, though quite rare. It seems to depend on age to some extent, and whether they have accepted the idea of a firmware update. There can, it seems, be variations according relationship contract status. Or so I am told.
FWIW and as you have probably already read on line, many UK airports are now stoppomg cars and taxis dropping off or picking up near terminals.
Of course for BA passengers this may not matter much since they will be travelling light either to avoid losing possessions of because their possessions are already being re-cycled.
I would also imagine that, given the background of the people being investigated about the recent bomb attempts, any flights from certain 'interesting' countries may be subject to special attention.
You could mention 'body searches' for example, though only you would know whether that would elicit a negative or positive response.
Grant
Grant,
ReplyDeletethe problem may have been solved. While I was reading your comments, my wife happened to come and rest her head, lovingly, on my shoulder.
Being the sort of wife who interests herself in hubby's hobbies (try saying that when pissed), she read what had been written then asked me to scroll back up so she could read the whole thread.
The doctor says that I may not be out of traction in time for our flight home...........
Grumpy,
ReplyDeleteHmm, a result! ?
One option is spearate holidays - if that is still an option of course.
Very dangerous, IMO, to allow people access to personal net based things. Surely allowing that to happen under your control is a monumental lapse of concentration?
It is vitally important to discourage any participation and have alternative things that can obliterate the screen when necessary - even if that means inducing a power failure as a last resort.
I'll send some virtual flowers - iirc Ken carries an add for a service of that type.
Grant