No choice

DJ Jaybee writes: It seems that this government has once again chipped away freedom from the UK by imposing sinister policies that make ordinary intelligent adults feel like they've been sent to stand in the naughty corner with their hands on their heads, then when that's not good enough - sent to get the cane. The fines suggested are far greater than we constantly read in the papers that criminals are getting for much more serious crimes.

Smokers may feel that the current legislation is bad enough, but this is no doubt not going to stop the anti-smoking parade - as they will continue until we're banned from smoking in our own homes too. With people not being able to go to their pub or club to smoke, they will cry about the risk from passive smoking whether you've got children/cat/parrot/goldfish or not. This policy, where a landlord can't choose to run a pub with staff that want to smoke and customers that want to too, just shows how this whole clamp down is going to progress.

Smokers may not be aware, or care - but this government also banned legitimate businesses from selling fresh psilocybe mushrooms in the UK (2005-07-22) - yet another instance of a 'nanny state' view that adults aren't big enough to decide for themselves. Pharmaceutical companies can sell synthetic, far more powerful and dangerous drugs, with numerous side effects and minimal testing, but something that has been taken for thousands of years and grows naturally is banned.

Maybe it's too mind expanding, and maybe pubs at the moment are too. Maybe the government would like the pub infrastructure to crumble because it's a place where people can talk about what's going on - and the smokers corner anywhere is a place where gossip and debate occurs.

People are still going to smoke whether it's banned or not, it just makes you a criminal. People from all walks of life still smoke cannabis, take cocaine, ecstasy etc but they are breaking the law, if things are legal and regulated at least people know what they are getting. When anything is made illegal and pushed underground then who knows what's actually in it until people take it? A pack of what appears to be Marlboro lights bought from a stranger could contain asbestos - but that won't stop some people buying it.

Anything taken in excess it obviously bad, whether it's smoking, drinking, drug abuse, or eating carrots. People should be informed about this instead and helped if they have a problem but should be free to make choices. I doubt that Tolkien would have developed the books he did if he had been constantly fined for smoking his pipe at the literary meetings down at the pub.