Those of you with reasonably unaddled brains may well recall that, back in October, I warned you all of Nanny's plans to issue licences to people who wished to smoke.The loon behind those plans was Professor Julian Le Grand.
Well, some five months on, the professor (who, much like syphilis, refuses to go away) is making national headlines.
In a rare departure from NKB policy here is a link to the BBC story.
Here is why the idea is bollocks (aside from the very obvious point that it is not Nanny's place to do this):
1 Enforcing it would be almost impossible.
2 People with a permit would simply buy fags for their mates who don't have a permit.
3 It would require a special force of smoking permit inspectors to check on people who were seen smoking in the street.
4 In order for each smoker to see their GP every year, to have their permit renewed, it would take up 25 million appointments annually and rob millions of sick people of the chance of seeing their doctor.
Wrt Nanny's use of the phrase "stakeholders".
What a load of mumbo jumbo bureaucratic double speak shite.
Why don't these tossers speak English?
I suspect that Nanny has realised that all her anti-smoking regulations has cut down her tax take.....The issuing of licenses to smoke will obviously attract a fee....Kerching....Nanny hopes this will get her till ringing again.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what the fine...Kerching...will be for a lisensed buyer that buys cigarettes for an unlisensed smoker...If I was a betting man, I would say £1000 as this seems to be the figure Nanny likes the most.
Fortunately, I am a non smoker, so this crazy legislation will not affect me....But if we let Nanny get away with this, what will be next?...A license to be over weight? A license to buy booze?
Had I wished to live in a police state, I would have moved to one, Nanny is destroying not just our country, but our way of life and culture too. Problem is, I can't see Dave "me too" Cameron being any different when we kick Labour Nanny out, can you?
Makes you proud to be British doesn't it.
I should preface this with the fact that I've never smoked but I've no problem with anyone else smoking so long as they don't do it near me. I'll also happily buy tobacco products for friends if they ask because I happen to be passing a shop on my way to meet them.
ReplyDeleteThere are many other reasons why this is yet another piece of ill thought out bollocks.
What do foreign visitors do? Do they get an exemption from requiring a licence if they can show their passport? If so nobody with dual nationality would ever get a licence.
Nobody living near channel ports would need to bother - they'd just buy them cheaper and licence free in France.
What if a smoker has broken their leg, come down with Chicken Pox or is simply old and infirm and cannot get out of the house. If their relatives or carers are non-smokers are they just supposed to go cold turkey? Would the state causing someone to suffer withdrawl symptoms constitute a human rights violation?
Do they really think £10 per person will come close to covering the costs of administering it? No, they'll have to rely on additional income from fines (you can bet they'd introduce targets for how many fines to issue each year) and on funding from general taxation.
The really annoying thing is that Julian Le Grand doubtless gets paid considerably more than I do and yet this is what he comes up with.
" Wrt Nanny's use of the phrase "stakeholders". "
ReplyDeleteAs Nanny and her acolytes will one day learn the hard way, I too am a "stakeholder" ...
I don't think my kind of stake is what they have in mind though
Just another way of getting the ID card/database in place. Want to smoke - "sorry mate where's your card/permit." Like a pint, "sorry mate no other id accepted here except ID card or alcohol age related permit taken - yeah, I know you look about 55 but sorry mate more than my job's worth to serve you, they'll close the pub down. Oh hang on a minute the telescreen has just come on "tractor production is up in EU zone 9 formerly England, the economy is growing at a massive rate the Euro in your pocket has never been worth more - citizens are reminded to carry their ID with them at all times..."
ReplyDeleteObviously this isn't going to happen, so you have to ask what is the oddly named Julian Le Grand (Big Jules) aiming to get out of this? I guess a lot of publicity. I wonder if he's planning on asking Nanny for a new job soon?
ReplyDeletearchroy,
ReplyDeleteNot going to happen? Think again, would you have imagined the day when one could not smoke a legal substance in a pub, when cameras would follow your every move as a 'free' citizen going about your daily and legal business on the streets of your own country, when nations would surrender their national parliaments and currency to an unelected political construct in Brussells?
Think again my friend, think again as the 'colleauges' in the EU and their puppet parliament here are thinking ever more ways to control every aspect of our lives.
This is a smoke screen (sorry about the pun), typical of the nanny state.
ReplyDeleteFrighten you one day, and take away a few lesser rights the next day, to everyone's grateful relief that the fascists didn't do what they never intended to do in the first place.
The next bans will be everywhere in town centres, followed by a complete ban in private cars.
Ken,
ReplyDeletelike so much of Nanny's other repressive legislation, the ability to enforce this latest plan is not a material consideration.
What matters to Nanny (and the only thing that REALLY matters), is our resigned acceptance. These things are really Nanny's way of testing us. She recognises that there will be protests, but it is the type and strength of protest that she is trying to gauge.
So long as we all mutter about 'stupid ideas' or 'another nail in the coffin of freedom' Nanny knows she is safe and can carry on with her plan to make so many people dependent on her patronage - via council non-jobs, enhanced 'benefit payments', or even as 'smoking permit inspectors' - that she can never lose another election.
So it's quite possible that this idea may be shelved (although more likely that it will not be) either way, we will have given Nanny the demonstration that she's looking for; that even on lunacy like this we're not prepared actually to DO anything except mutter.
Revolution now? (or when Nanny says it's OK?)
Grumpy's right. It is the thin edge of the wedge. With one victory under their belts these crusading zealots will not stop but will go on and on seeking to ban or control even more aspects of our private lives. I never thought I would see this type of fascism here. It is simply appalling and the fact that high profile nutters like Julian Le Grand Arsehole can influence the morons in government to actually take his barmy ideas seriously is shocking. They are on a control freak roll and it will not stop until the public openly rebel against them. The media, internet and public life are full of ever more disturbing stories of the loss of our ancient freedoms but Nanny has realised that doesn't matter, that she can be quite brass-necked about how she imposes on our liberty. Lots of talk but no action. Where is the tipping point?
ReplyDeleteKen,
ReplyDeleteI realise that my request may be a bit cheeky, but since there is no link from my post to my site, may I invite your bloggers to take a look at:
grumpyoldexpat.com