March of the Puritans

To borrow from Andrew Allison, once upon a time private property rights were highly valued. As long as it was legal, what consenting adults did was no-one else’s business. With the March of the Puritans, however, there are umpteen state-funded Quangos, sock-puppets and Government busybodies poking their noses in where it is decidedly unwelcome.

As reported by the Halifax Courier last week:

Calderdale taxi drivers and passengers face vaping ban in cabs

Under the Health Act 2006, “smoking” refers to smoking tobacco or anything which contains tobacco, or smoking any other substance, and smoking includes being in possession of lit tobacco or of anything lit which contains tobacco, or being in possession of any other lit substance in a form in which it could be smoked.

It should be known to these monkey-faced bedwetters in Calderdale Council that vaping isn’t covered under the Health Act 2006, but when has that ever stopped the Puritans from being unashamedly dense?

In a report to the committee it although they are not subject to any regulation at this time there are still some concerns regarding e-cigarette safety as few of the manufacturers disclose the ingredients within the products.

Bullshit bingo right here. Did the committee not know about the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations (2016)? Are they so completely blinded by their own dimwitted ideas that they completely ignore nationwide legislation?

Currently, vaping in enclosed spaces is entirely legal. That is to say, it is permitted. Allowed. Not banned.

“The short term health risks associated with e-cigarette use appear to be minimal but the potential long term impact remains unknown,” the report said.

It is rather telling that this statement made its way into the committee report. I would suspect the influence of one Liverpudlian dimwit.

“The vapour emitted from the e-cigarettes may trigger smoke alarms; the vapour may also affect those around who suffer with health issues for example, sensitive asthma.”

More crass bullshit here. Yes, on occasion smoke alarms may be triggered, but that depends on the type of detector in the alarm itself. As for the exacerbation of health issues, I guess these twonks haven’t bothered to catch up with the latest evidence.

Judging by its entry in last year’s ‘Vaping Policies in UK Councils‘ report, Calderdale is seeking to remain as the most backwards looking and ignorant Council. Councillors will be debating the final decision to an amendment on the licenses and conditions of the current private hire license conditions, hackney carriage drivers’ code of conduct and operator conditions.

The thing is if a driver and passenger are happy with either one vaping during a journey it really isn’t the business of the council to interfere. This is yet another example of prodnose busybodies sticking their oar in when decisions like this should be left to the individual operator and driver.

Quite how the council plans to enforce this is unclear. Frankly, the last thing anybody needs is yet more council employed jobsworths making lives miserable. Chances are, they’ll likely put the onus on the operator and drivers to snitch on those that defy this illiberal policy.

According to The Huddersfield Daily Examiner:

Council officers say they’ve seen people ‘vaping’ in taxis and say the appearance of it is “not considered to be acceptable.”

There you have it. In black and white. The simple act of vaping is considered to be ‘unacceptable’. Calderdale Council, in its blissful ignorance, is thoroughly ignoring the Government’s Tobacco Control Plan, even though it reviewed its vaping policy in September as a result of the plan.

None of the reasons cited by the committee – no doubt spurred on by the usual suspects in the North West – for the proposed ban are justified. This is yet another case of “I don’t like it, ban it” being displayed for all to see and, supposedly it’s meant to be about health.

If Calderdale Council is like my own, councillors will simply agree to the committee’s proposals with minimal fuss.

If you’re based in the area, and you want to tell the council leader what you think of this, you can contact him here. Do try to be polite.

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2 thoughts on “March of the Puritans

  1. “There you have it. In black and white. The simple act of vaping is considered to be ‘unacceptable’.” Not quite. What it says is: “Council officers say they’ve *seen people ‘vaping’* in taxis and say *the appearance of it* is “not considered to be acceptable.” Implying that it is merely the appearance (of vaping) and not the act itself that they find unacceptable. Inferring that if they can’t see it, they don’t care.

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