First they came for..

Well this is a rather lovely to-do isn’t it?

The smoking ban. Introduced on July 1st 2007 (in England, but the Scots had to go one better and implement it officially on March 26th 2006. Plus Wales did it on April 2nd 2007 – if only it had been a day earlier – and Northern Ireland on April 20th 2007). The ban is now almost 10 years old.

For those that don’t remember how it all came about, a brief history lesson is needed.

First of all, in 2004 this article appeared. It was to be the “next logical step” after the advertising ban which came after the gory health-porn. The smoking ban was to be :

Of course, places like members only clubs and pubs which did not serve food would be exempt. At least, that was the plan. Even then, opponents of smoking – the totalitarian fuckwits – were “ disappointed they stop short of an outright ban” (natch). Of course, all this was with the thin, no not thin, but totally transparent “evidence” of the ‘harms of second hand tobacco smoke” where it was considered a simple wisp of tobacco smoke would simultaneously rip out a smokers lungs and those of a defenceless child a few hundred miles away.

Needless to say, I’ve never truly believed the utter bollocks of “second hand smoke” (and I definitely believe the third-hand smoke is utter bollocks too), but whatever my belief (which is, unsurprisingly, supported by evidence and analysis on both counts) of the “lethal secondhand smoke” that was the premise upon which the vast majority of the initial bans was all about. Protection from the “dangers” of secondhand smoke – utter tripe, but one of those handy tobacco control soundbites that has, even now, become ingrained in the minds of so many people.

So it’ll come as no surprise to regular readers that once the ban became law, the exemptions previously bandied about actually became smokefree. Naturally, that now includes the actual written in exemptions too.

More recently, we’ve had bonkers “voluntary” bans in town squares, proposals to ban in Parks, along with some daft Welshman touting the idea that if you work from home, then your home must be smokefree too, not to mention the latest “step” from ASH – the smokefree cars (with Children™ in) which had the astonishingly bad 3% decline in self-reported smoking.

Not forgetting the “masterful” plain packaging stroke (the last vestiges of ‘tobacco advertising’ – ignore the fact that folk don’t give a fuck about the packaging, and they told you as much).

The park, and open air places keep cropping up, so it is no wonder than that the Royal Society of Public Health are at it again. It’s been touted before, and was (rightly) denounced by all and sundry except for frothy mouthed anti-smoker zealots who claim it is the next logical step (natch) for a smokefree generation by some random arbitrary date (usually 2025).

Of course, this time RSPH want to take it further (see how it works yet?) by including:

Which is pretty much everywhere that smoking isn’t already banned. Y’see, not content with forcing smokers outside from pubs and other public spaces (one of those ridiculous notions as it makes smokers more visible, therefore by their own logic, makes smoking more appealing to the impressionable yoof), the utter fuckwittery of these illiberal knuckle draggers has moved on to trying to get smoking banned out in the open as the “next logical step”.

Of course, this move was after a Labour Mayor called for the same move, which can only mean the wrong people nagged the wrong people at RSPH to call for it all over again.

After all, ‘public health’ have recently called for smoking to be banned in council homes – though they have taken great pains to admit it’s only for certain types of council home – but the move has been made, which will naturally mean an increase in pressure from sockpuppets like ASH to sway public opinion with one of their heavily slanted YouGov polls (which will get disregarded if the result doesn’t go their way).

The statement on the RSPH website states:

Of course it is you navel gazing loons, you and your lackey cohorts forced smokers outside with your illiberal bans due to some ridiculously wafer thin “science” and a handful of anecdotes – you’ll note anecdotes are fine if they support the batshit insane policy proposed by tobacco control, but are to be utterly dismissed if they don’t.

Y’see, this is how things begin. Call for the ludicrous, make a big song and dance about it, make all kinds of batshit claims about “protecting kids” and other such nonsense, and eventually enough ‘public support’ (from skewed polls, natch) will cause gullible MPs and Ministers to pass legislation that further restricts people’s freedoms.

Of course, RSPH are claiming they want the bans to drive folk towards e-cigs. Let me be abundantly clear. There is nothing worse than using a consumer driven product – such as e-cigs – to beat on another group. If smokers want to try e-cigs, they’ll try them in their own time. Smokers should never be coerced to switch if they don’t want to, simply to avoid a ban.

RSPH claim that “the move would lead to one third of smokers turning to e-cigarettes.” – will it fuck. Once again, this is first class star gazing fuckwittery. It’s showing that they really have no clue why people smoke.

Naturally, they’ll stop with tobacco won’t they? Not that there’s a slippery slope at all. Right? Alcohol & sugar are already firmly in the health nannies sights, you can be damn sure that vaping will be once they’ve “eradicated” (yeah right, that’s never going to happen) smoking.

How soon will it be before there’ll be no-one left to speak out?

(image credit alice-photo/shutterstock.com)