Smokefree Shenanigans (and a “Public Consultation”)

It never ceases to amaze me how ludicrous these anti-smoker folk are. Not simply content with banning smoking (and of course in some cases vaping too) indoors in bars, pubs and all the other fun places that we like to attend, now they’re taking aim at the great outdoors.

It’s not the first time, Swansea held a consultation, which they subsequently ignored. Pembrokeshire council made a beach smokefree (which of course included vaping), Bristol has a “voluntary ban” (complete with oh so cute sign posts) – arguably they were “the first” to do such a bonkers notion.

Of course, once the “first” voluntary ban had been put in place, many others soon followed (yes Sheffield, I’m looking at you) and of course now hospitals are banning both smoking and vaping in the grounds. But there’s always one that has to go just that one step beyond into sheer puritanical insanity isn’t there?

Erm what? A smoke free zone to include nearby roads? The very same roads with many automobiles with internal combustion engines? The very same vehicles emitting a cocktail of “noxious” gasses? Well I never.

As you can see, the “exclusion zone” is a substantial area of public highway surrounding the hospital itself. Of course, they are completely ignoring the main trunk road at the top of the picture to focus solely on the areas wherever anyone can enter the hospital grounds.

Isn’t that just completely bonkers?

Fellow blogger Christopher Snowdon did highlight a very valid point:

Quite. Well, the hospital has opened a “public consultation” (which they’ll no doubt ignore if the results don’t go their way), where of course they ask some heavily loaded questions – which is of course how these consultations work.

“What are your views on a smoke-free zone outside of Birmingham Children’s Hospital?”

“Should the zone apply to e-Cigarettes?”

They also ask about the proposed boundaries, but offer no option to say “no, don’t fucking do it you puritanical fucktards”, but they do leave a lovely comments box which I highly recommend utilising to make your opinion known (might want to not use “puritanical fucktards” though, #justsaying).

Signage is another question, along with “should members of the public ask people to stop smoking in the zone” – ignoring for a moment the conflation of vaping and smoking, they are encouraging members of the public to harass smokers. Under no circumstances is that even close to being “OK” – we’ve seen how it is in Australia where anti-smoker folk down there are emboldened to bully and harass smokers. No good can come of this I assure you.

Then there was the question about fines. Which, according to spokespeople, “aren’t being considered”. Really. Unfortunately for them, the hospital has no rights to issue a fine on a public highway, and as staff are going to be too busy, it’s unlikely to be them that’ll issue them, oh no it’ll be down to some jobsworth lackey from the Council to “patrol” and hand out bits of meaningless paper. In the name of health of course.

Do go and complete the consultation, let them know what you think of this farce. Make them think twice about doing something incredibly stupid.