Voice of the anti-smoker
KB writes: I have nothing against you smoking. In fact you can smoke as much as you like.
Many of us probably also share the social atmosphere of a pub. The atmosphere of a pub that I don't enjoy is the one that: (a) sends me home with a sore throat (b) then makes me have to put all of my clothes straight into the wash. Surely I have human rights too?
Also, why is the ban seen to be so disastrous? In all other countries, including Italy even, it seems to have been a success. Smokers are still smoking. Non-smokers are enjoying smoke free socialising. Go ahead and smoke as much as you want. Just don't do it next to me or I might fart (or is that antisocial?).
posted by Simon Clark @ 08:49
58 comments
58 Comments:
Brilliant news! One more step towards a complete ban. Would you like to explain how your enlightened stance of "an informed choice" could have helped me and my wife as children? We both grew up in homes with parents who smoked heavily. She's badly asthmatic; I just detest the smell and the taste that gets into everything and the stinging eyes.
Seriously, what would I do if I were to ever get lung cancer? As an adult, I don't know anyone who smokes, so I would assume my childhood exposure were the cause.
I can't believe you hide such a destructive practice behind "freedom".
atr you are indeed a selfish and ignorant individual. Not only are you blatantly unaware of the many causes of lung disease (exhaust fumes, asbestos etc) but you care for nobody but yourself.
Your wifes asthma is indeed terrible but a link to a high salt diet as a child seems to be a more likely cause not exposure to other peoples smoke. This explains why asthma rates have increased even though smoking rates have declined.
Wouldn't it be nice if we could find a way to accomodate everyone?.
Absolutely fabulous news. As a soon to be ex smoker this will be a real help.
During previous attempts Pubs and even restaurants were a no-no (I know, what a wuss) but the merest whiff of the cancer fumes had me back to 40 a day.
At least now I stand a chance of going smoke free and staying that way (excellent for my health and my pocket) - just a shame the ban doesn't come in now.
For all you Forest people - wake up, smell the fresh air. Why are you lobby fodder for companies that now their products kill?
How predictable that the venal anti-smokers choose to come on this blog for a gloat today!
To KB:
I find the idea of you getting home from the pub, tearing off your clothes and throwing them into the washing machine rather funny, but not very plausible.
To nonesmokerbarrow:
"...fight my way through a gang of shivering smokers...". My my, you do have a high sense of compassion for your fellow man, don't you. Of course, without this nasty and illiberal ban, there would be no such gang outside your local.
To atr:
However you personally detest the smell, together with your other hyberbolic views, this is not a justification for the draconian ban.
If you should be so unfortunate as to get lung cancer, you may rest assured that as a non-smoker the least likely cause of this will be second-hand smoke. This is not just my personal view, but is backed up by the weight of evidence provided by 'real' scientific research. Don't believe me? Go and use the internet for a positive purpose then, rather than coming here to kick this persecuted minority in the teeth.
Enjoy your moment of hubris, anti-smokers. The days of considerate smoking are now over from me, and I trust millions of others.
The fight back has now begun!
'Simon Clark, director of smoking support group Forest, conceded that the pro-smoking lobby had "lost the battle but not necessarily the war".
"People will continue to smoke and the idea that people are all going to give up smoking simply because they can't smoke in a pub is nonsense," he told BBC News.'
I have to say, I am delighted with the ban. I really disagree with Mr Clark's comments. I travel a great deal and I gave up because in the States it was so difficult to smoke anymore!
No more smelly clothes. No more coughing after a night out. Reduced risk of cancer to none smokers and those who work in public places.
The total ban is fair because it means that those pubs that want to serve food will not now not be discriminated against. great for families.
As for smokers, by the very act of smoking in public they take away the rights of non smokers. As non smokers outnumber smokers and as we in the UK live in a democracy then it is only right that the smokers lose their right to smoke in public. I am so happy and there is nothing Forest can do about it. Hoorrrrrayyyy
Now it has been passed ('TOTAL BAN ON SMOKING IN ALL PUBLIC PLACES') you and all your smokers can cough your lungs out. YOU LOSE. HO HO HO. Yours, total dedicated ANTI-SMOKER
You guys are laughable. You want choice. I was born with asthma 35 years ago have never known what having a good pair of lungs is like. I have nearly died several times because of it and will be lucky to live to an old age.
I have not had the choice to be able to go out and socialize due do NOT HAVING THE CHOICE of not breathing the death causing smoke you want the freedom to blow in my face. (WHERE IS MY CHOICE?)
Fair enough, the choice should be to do it in your own home killing your own children WHO HAVE NO CHOICE of breathing in the smoke.
Sorry, no sympathy for you. The disgrace is it’s taken this long for something to be done and the sooner a total ban is done the better.
PS. My uncle had the CHOICE, died 18 months ago, left a wife and a disabled son as he said before he died he wished there had been a ban because he probably would not of smoked because it would not have been seen a COOL.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing in face of death. God bless you
Ha. That's it really. I hope your organisation withers and dies now that smoking is finally banned from places where it should never have been allowed.
hahahhahahahahahahhahaahahahhahhahaaa
For me this is a bit like Fox Hunting - we always knew that sooner or later it was going to be banned, mainly because it's wrong. The only question was 'when?'.
I just hope lots of people use this as an excuse to give up. I gave up 3 years ago and I feel so much better for it.
I think that, although there will be a lot of addicts moaning for a bit (and as an ex-smoker I can empathise with them), the bigger effect will be a cultural change of perception for our children. Let's hope so anyway.
Stop smoking! You'll never regret it.
You can protest all you like but at the end of the day smokers will eventually be pushed away from
the people they're killing.
You can argue against the effects of passive smoking, but when I leave a smoky bar feeling ill from inhaling the crap that others decide to blow at me, I know that it's not doing me any good.
Sorry to disappoint you that it hasn't (yet) killed me. When it does, I'll be sure to tell my relatives to let you know.
The new ban (shame we have to endure another 15 months of the selfishness of smokers) is a good thing. No-one said it would make people give up - at the end of the day smokers have to decide if it's fair to kill other people as well as themselves.
I don't really give a shit about their lives, if they're so bloody stupid after all the medical evidence to still continue smoking. What I do care about is this "we have the right to inflict this on other people" mentality.
Organisations like yours do nothing for the general health of the nation. Go ahead and kill yourselves (for I presume you all smoke) but don't make us suffer for it.
dcbrainstorm expounded on the virtues of choice, but then said:
"By the way - as market forces usually decide, you could have gone to the 11% of venues which were already smoke free"
This proves why legislation is neccessary! Most pubs and bars won't voluntarily put no-smoking rules in place because they'll lose custom. Non smokers are the vast majority in this country, so why do we only have 11% no-smoking establishments! I want to choose where I drink based on the quality of decor, ambience, food, music etc. and not have to rule out 89% of places to stay smoke-free!
I have just been on to your web site for the first time - and just wanted you to know what an evil, deluded and irresponsible group you are. Your use of misinformation is shocking.
The fact is there is no other social activity that forces another to partake and makes it difficult for them to breathe, makes them sick and leaves their
clothes and hair stinking. If you try to dismiss all of the medical evidence (which strongly indicates passive smoking is harmful) it is still anti-social and negatively impact other peoples lives.
When I see all the effort you put into this campaign I wonder what useful, helpful and beneficial work you could be doing instead. I personally choose to volunteer for Mencap. I feel very sorry for you.
atr - I too grew up in a household where both my parents smoked. I am a smoker and quite happy and healthy with it. My brother is, like you, a self righteous non smoker, but also healthy. It did neither of us any harm at all. However, seeing as you and the dictators that are in power seem to think it is so damaging to children, then why do you applaud this total ban? I am sure that your parents, as mine, enjoyed a break from us kids and went out some evenings, for a meal, to the pub or some other place where they could socialise and smoke; now that this option is being taken away from smokers can you not see that children will be the biggest casualties in this.
Children in this situation will not have the choice that should exist for us adults - venues that cater for non smokers and other venues that cater for smokers. The argument that workers will be subjected to passive smoking is a total non starter as there are more than enough smokers in the workforce for this not to be an issue at all, it has all just been an excuse.
Get real and start to live in the real world and stop being so b****y selfish and think a little of others, like the children that will suffer more than you seem to think you did as a child.
Dear nonsmokerbarrow I can guarantee that you will have to fight your way through a gang of smokers at every pub door.
to dcbrainstorm - 11% of non smoking places already? Where do you live? As a smoker I would have said it was more like 11% of smoking venues. There are very few cafes where a smoker can get a coffee and have a smoke, or restaurants where smokers can enjoy a meal and smoke between courses. As for pubs, being a virtual non drinker I wouldn't really know about them.
In response to anonymous who replied to you, if you non smokers are in such a majority and were as social as us smokers appear to be, then the leisure industry would not have had to wait for legislation to go non smoking, many would have done it anyway. It just goes to show how much they have needed the smokers in the past. The very fact that the reason being stated against a partial ban is the unfairness on the non smoking places, says quite a lot to me. If you non smoking lot were able to have a sensible debate and see further than the end of your noses, then there could have been good and fair trade for all.
It seems too that we have been fed a load of baloney regarding Southern Ireland and how little their trade has been affected. If you look back through some of the messages on this site alone, from people who live and work there, you will see that trade has dropped significantly, pubs and clubs have closed and there are no longer jobs available in the trade, so more people out of work too.
to nonsmokerbarrow - much as I intend to stay home once the ban comes into effect and hope that many other smokers will do the same, just to prove how much trade will be lost, I hope you do have to fight your way through huge gangs of smokers to get into the pub and I hope they all blow their smoke at you.
As for calling 999 if you should see anyone smoking, firstly make sure it is from a cigarette first and not steam pouring from frustrated ears. Also, do you not think it would be far better for the police to be doing their real job, that is if anyone can remember what that is, instead of playing nanny to the likes of you? Or perhaps you wouldn't mind the police being called to pubs and clubs because the likes of you 'thought' you saw someone smoking, when instead they could have been preventing a break in or rape. Perhaps you will only consider this if it is one of your family, mother, wife, sister, daughter, who is being raped or stabbed. Well I do hope for your families sake, not yours, that you don't have to go through this before it hits home just how petty and pathetic you are being.
To BrianB
I suspect that, like many smokers, you have so destroyed your own sense of smell that you really don't know how bad most smokers smell and how offensive is the sour stink of stale smoke that clings to the clothes and hair of non smokers even after a short time in a smoky atmosphere. I certainly wouldn't wear those clothes again until they had been washed. Hair likewise.
I freely accept that my vice is smoking. I smoked as a teenager, gave it up for 20 years whilst I bought up my family and started again after they were grown up and the marriage collapsed.
It is my choice........ however I feel it is balanced by my other choices - I do not drink alcohol - I drive a economical green car, I use very little electricity or other fuels. I buy local - I avoid foodmiles whereever I can - I do not jet all around the world or spend all my week on the road and use public transport where I can. My pollution index/footprint is very low.
I think I should have the choice of smoking or non smoking .
Question why is alcohol more socially acceptable than smoking - when it causes equal if not more long term damage and cost ?
Definitely not going to gloat and feel very sorry for everyone out there that likes a fag with thier beer, but having recently quit after 15 years of 30 per day, I would just like to say to anyone out there that can't imagine life without the ciggie, life doesn't stop when you quit, if anything, it gets a hell of a lot better... the best thing is that the lethargy that was getting worse and worse is completely gone! I can also finally afford to take my partner out for meals AND don't have to keep nipping out for a quick, unrelaxed puff, etc..etc. Admittedly the initial mood swings were a bit of a challenge for both me and my partner to deal with but they pass within days and to be honest, there are quite a few "city" smells that I'd really rather not know about... but there's no denying how much better life is without the weed (actually, without both the legal and illegal weed... used to be able to quit the former only to have the latter drag me back again)
ali said:
"Tolerant non-smokers??? Looks like an ASH board meeting on here "
Ali, you took the words out of my mouth - ASH must have posted this address on their own site and ordered their pathetic sheep to come and gloat.
Sorry to disappoint you, ASH people, you WILL die! Sooner rather than later I would guess, given your over-excitable tempraments demonstrated by your messages here.
You won't be missed.
I'm delighted that Britain has voted to ban smoking too.
An individual has a duty to the state alone. The rights of the individual cannot be given priority over the rights of the majority. Each citizen has a responsibility to the common good of the republic. I hope it is only a matter of time before other suspected carcinogens, unhealthy foods and nuisances like alcohol, dairy products, red-meat, barbecued foods, wood burning, perfume, gasoline, loud music and sunlight are banned as well. Fining or incarcerating fat citizens would also further benefit the common good of the state.
What's wrong with providing well-ventilated areas for smokers? We're already allegedly more prone to colds and chest infections, and now we're being sent out into the cold and rain to enjoy our tobacco!
It's all very well in California to go outside for a ciggie, but in this climate?
I'll be holding dinner parties for my smoking and tolerant friends in future...
Smoking and the selling of cigarettes is LEGAL.Why should smokers lose their civil liberties.
Is cigarette making/selling to be band.NO.The country would be bankrupt.Give everyone a choice including pubs,clubs etc.
What on earth has happened to our democratic country? This is indeed Dictatorship.
Doom & gloom, for gods sake smokers get a grip! Are you so addled by your drug addiction you can't see the truth.
All society is saying is if you want to fill your lungs up with smoke then fine just don't force others to inhale your smoke, it's hardly a rocket science concept. Nicotine addiction affects thought process. Proof is the stupid comments they keep making about 'the right to smoke'
If so many people despise smoke in pubs, then why hasn't someone set up a major chain of non-smoking pubs? They'd make a fortune! And everyone would be happy! Can any anti-smoker tell me no businessman has had the foresight to recognise this amazing opportunity?
Its time forest put a stop to the desciples of ASH being so ignorant, self-obsessed and condescending and doing it on a pro-smoking site for crying out loud Why do they come here? This site is for people who smoke and we dont need told off about it or gloated at by the self-sanctimonious. They should all do some research of their own and start getting angry about vehicle emissions, obesity and drinking.
The day will come when:-
1) scales are fitted on the outside of restaurants.
2) Sweets are banned or limited to one bar a week for the obese.
3) Drinks are totalled on a smart card and nobody can buy one once they are over the unit limit for the week.
4) Cars are scrapped by law once they are over a certain age.
5) Parents are fined for every pound overweight their kids are
6) Hospitals refuse to treat you if you take up a sport which may damage you including eating too many biscuits
7)Stamping out the smokers will stamp out the health service.
The above look as likely as smoking being stopped in pubs! Oh dear its already happened! I hope all you anti-smokers will be as cocky when the nanny state comes down on you like a ton of bricks. I will be waiting with bated breath for my time to gloat and believe me, it will come. Are all the smoking pensioners a figment of our imagination? You lot won't mind anyway because you will all have Alzeimers or have given yourselves strokes or heart attacks by being so bloody angry all the time. Stress is a huge killer, get off the moral high ground and go see ASH. I'll just have a poisness killer and calm myself down - long live smoking! p.s. my mum smoked for 65 years and is in rude health - maybe I should contact the Guiness Book of Records. She and her neighbour who has smoked Players Weights for 50 years must indeed be miracles!
Well, well, well.
Now, now, now.
What an unholy din.
Lots of mainly anonymous antismoking psychotics coming out of the woodwork. Perhaps they forgot their tranquillizers or need a fag. What a joke!
We fully accept your "Yahboosucks!", you won, you deserve to carp on. Yes, with the assistance of the multimillion pound pharmaceutical industry, do-gooders like the BMA, my money which is collected by Mr Brown and used to be collected by the British Heart Foundation and Cancer Research you have walked all over a quarter of the adult population. Notwithstanding the use of corrupt science. Well done, what a worthwhile end and highly respectable method.
Our day will come. We simply have to organise ourselves like your sorry, self-interested, scientifically bankrupt propaganda groups. The "Hitler Mentality" will be defeated when history repeats itself. Social engineering is always unacceptable. Tolerance and manners which abound in smokers are surely lacking in antismokers.
Sadly if you cant beat 'em join 'em may have to prevail. I certainly will not be "turning the other cheek". It will remain legal to smoke in enclosed spaces for some 18 months and my tolerance of antismokers is sadly approaching zero. Keep out of our smoking zones if you don't smoke.
Rest assured when I have to smoke in alleys and doorways I will consider just how much I can inconvenience you health fascists.
So this law is passed on the grounds of improving health. I reckon there is more to life than health. Lives will be saved if some smokers give up but what tedious lives they will be. Unfortunately no non-smokers lives will be spared, you are all going to die of something else or may be lung cancer. Yes you too can die of heart and lung disease, what a shame. Oh how that pleases me, you have all quite naively been taken in and believe my smoke harms your health.
I used to be considerate and avoid sitting on benches next to non-smokers but now I have no choice...move on losers.
Oh by the way..did you know ASH followers that it is impossible for us to post on their web site..they censor us..not so here..free speech here and long may it last!
Happy crowing and I'm jolly glad you are a minority group, sadly over represented and unfortunately heard. I'm also glad I've not met many of you.
Go back into your miserable shells, puff on your inhalers and continue to pleasure yourselves.
well said gasdoc! My tolerance and empathy towards the anti-smokers has officially stopped! If I am next to someone outside I will happily waft my noxious fumes their way safe in the knowledge that I have condemned them to a slow and painful death in stinking clothes. We smokers are sick of you anti-smokers hijacking OUR site especially when you lot wont let any of us on your sites. Unless, of course and very predictably, we are regurgatating your so-called facts when, if you did your homework and researched the matter properly, you would realise how much propaganda and hysteria has been whipped up. If you are overweight amd drive, dont get too cosy and look out drinkers. All your days will come aid I will be gloating then! Have fun while you can.
What car do you drive?
The anti-smoking Nazis really love to gloat, but these miserable freaks really think they scored a victory all by their own voices and protest?? Ludicrous!
The Dictators in power DECIDED to implement bans because it's politically expedient for them, since the politicians in England, as well as America, are so totally and thoroughly corrupt, warmongers who KILL and BOMB people at their whim based on lies, want you anti-smoking nutcases to see that they're 'not so bad after all'. "See, Tony Blair isn't really a corrupt warmonger, he's compassionate towards non-smokers! I'll vote for his party again!"
It's all politics. The politicians don't give a flying carp about your clothes "stinking" after a night of drinking in the pub. You anti-smoking idiots surely prove that by not smoking, you become dumber and dumber.
Smokers and non-smokers have socialized for decades upon decades in smoky pubs and clubs, yet now all these non-smokers feel that nowadays it's just an unacceptable scenario? What about when your own parents met each other all those years ago in that smoky pub down the street and decided to get it on? Did you grow up sickly and damaged? Maybe you did, because these anti-smoking fascists sure are damaged goods metally.
A little junk science and propaganda by the Dictators really got you "health" nuts completely fooled. And if you're such a "health" nut, why are you going to pubs in the first place?
I can't wait until it's your turn to have something you enjoy banned in public. Enjoy your "victory" while you can, sore winners.
To all you people happy to rub salt into the wounds of all us smokers, you have completly missed the point on this issue. How naive you are, This government doesn't give a toss about you or your lack of rights. It's all about public pressure, but don't worry too much. While they are diverting your attention with this issue we're missing something that really matters. Talk about rights, you have non, you have no choice. And smug isn't really very attractive now, is it.
To all the antis infiltrating this site to laugh - Im considering ditching cigarettes in favour of a pipe or large cigars that will mean I can make a fine job of annoying anti-smokers if they come my way in a "permitted smoking area". How much fun it will be to exhale a large plume of cigar or pipe smoke as near to their faces as I can get it. The gloves are off my friends, bring your inhalers!
Well done Forest, for allowing dissenting opinion on your site. Neither ASH, nor the fluffy-wuffy Roy Castle "Kids Against Kancer" site allows ANY comment not in harmony with their moralising propaganda. "Smoking sucks" [a frequent squeal] is fine, "I dispute your statistics" is verboten.
Yes, enough consideration for the non-smokers. Look where it's got us.
Hi to all you fellow smokers. I have been reading all your comments of the last day or so about how you will no longer be giving any consideration to non smokers and I understand how you all feel as I feel the same.
However, whilst thinking this over and revelling in how wonderful it would feel to blow my smoke in the faces of these oh so righteous morons, it did occur to me that personally, I have had quite a lot of support from non smoking friends and people I have just met. On this basis I may well end up blowing my smoke into the face of someone who was on my side for choice for everyone, rather than one of these morons.
The other consideration is, of course, do we really want to bring ourselves down to the level of these ignorant, rude, idiots who lap up as much propaganda (aimed, of course at idiots)as they can and then stupidly gloat when they think they have won?
Of course they haven't won! How naive of them to think that they have! How are they going to feel when direct and indirect taxes go up to cover the losses to the treasury, and/or the government, (their heroes)think of something new to tax and it happens to be something they enjoy doing, or something else to ban, which also happens to be something they enjoy.
Come on smokers, let's show them that at least we can be grown up and mature about this, which is far more than the vast majority of anti smokers contributing to this site are.
I'm sick and tired of all this "I have the right to smoke" rubbish. Yes, you have the right to smoke, but not in such a way that infringes the rights of others!!
Why should we have to live in misery just because of selfish people who don't respect the body God's given them?
And smoking outside in public spaces is selfish too; why should I have to walk through a wave of POISONOUS smoke every time I walk in/out of a building.
Smokers tend to be a load of selfish litter bugs, as they stand there dropping fag ends and empty packets all over the place. YUCK!!!!
Smokers you're being taken for fools by the Government - They know how addicted you are, they know you will whinge and moan but at the end of the day when the ban comes in most of you won't quit you'll just nip outside instead and carry on paying your taxes on smokes. They know this and laugh at you as they pass legislation to force you outside, you're addicted and boy do they know it.
The breweries and tobacco companies have taken your money and might have avoided this if they had used some of the vast profits to install proper air cleaning methods. But no they've had your money too and only the tobacco companies mourn this legislation, all the large pub chains welcome it, less beer sales but more food sales ££££ is all they care about.
All this 'I'm gonna blow smoke in the face of non smokers while I can' stuff, well that's really adult isn't it.
Nicotine is an amphetamine type alkaloid, constant long term use causes paranoia and nervousness, see the truth for what it is.
This is the first time I've logged on to this site and boy what an eyeopener it has been.The nasty comments from the 'non smokers' are beyond belief, very infantile! Don't you all realise who the biggest losers are going to be? Those who lose their jobs because the breweries profits go down. I work in the industry and we had a total ban brought into force a couple of years ago. Our income went down by £24,000 in the first 12 months and has been steadily declining ever since, so much so that we will be closing our Bar very soon with the loss of jobs. I am a smoker and like many have always been considerate of non smokers, I only wish that this had been reciprocated. I don't wish to inflict my 'fumes' on anyone, all I ask is an area I can indulge and that the 'anti smokers' KEEP OUT! Is that too much to ask?
And still they keep coming!
It is well known that anti-smokers are paranoid, hysterical and obsessive, but they also seem to be blind too (and not just to the truth). How else can they fail to read the blog's introduction, which states:
"Welcome to Smokers Corner, an oasis of calm, considered thought for smokers and tolerant non-smokers alike."
Which part of the word 'tolerant' needs most careful translation into monosyllables for you, chaps?
Don't you realise that you aren't welcome here? Can't you control your tendency to want to force your self-centred views on others?
Go back into your play-pen with the rest of the insufferable ASH bigots for some relaxing self-gratification - or better still go to the pub. After all, they belong to you now, don't they?
To Nick Berry: you ask us to "recognise the truth for what it is". Well it isn't anywhere in your postings on this board.
To paul: Jeez mate, you seem to be a seriously uptight individual. Maybe you should make contact with Nick Berry and show him what real "paranoia and nervousness" are!
Really brainb
While you're addicted to a drug that requires constant hits then you're the one being conned. Only addiction cloids these issues (no pun intended)
I'm not from ASH either, this site was linked by the BBC. And as for internet forums it's a pretty quiet affair. Why because most smokers accept the future is on your doorstep and blowing smoke upon non smokers is not going to be tolerated much longer.
You're getting really uptight about the fact that you'll soon have to go outside to smoke, think about that!
Lin said "The nasty comments from the 'non smokers' are beyond belief, very infantile!"
So not wanting to breathe second hand smoke in and expresing an opinion is nasty?
Calls of 'fools and zealots'' The days of considerate smoking are now over from me, and I trust millions of others.'Go back into your miserable shells, puff on your inhalers and continue to pleasure yourselves'
So ask yourself this, if you lot are such tolerant people and not drug addicted why does this anger spill out at the prospect of not being able to smoke indoors in public anymore.
People used to smoke in hospitals, do you think we should return to that?
Well, in theory, I've just smoked my last smoke. Not because I 'want' to give up. Not because of this childish smoking ban. I simply can not afford to buy ciggarettes this week. All these holy than thou anti-smokers posting on this board make me near physically sick. And the bitching about "Oh great, now when I leave a pub, I'll have to put up with smokers outside". Who the hell do you think you are, Sir?
It's all just one step closer to Demolition Man made true. That's assuming we will be allowed to smoke in the sewers, for fear of the smoke rising up through a man-hole cover and upsetting a smoking-Nazi passing overhead.
Nick Berry said:
"People used to smoke in hospitals, do you think we should return to that?"
Ackshirley, you still can in some cases, i.e. psychiatric institutions. And hospitals are on the "exempt" list from the ban.
They have been closing many insane asylums here in the States and I see where the residents migrated to. A shame for your blog to be wasted on these nannies who need a lobotomy.
The whole point, surely, is that by publishing these views, Forest is correctly highlighting the extreme and intolerant nature of the anti-smoking Nazis. The important thing is not to fall into the same trap and allow ourselves to become as intolerant and vengeful as they are. We need to appreciate that some people, quite genuinely, don't like to be around smokers (or smoke) for a variety of reasons, and quietly point out that that is perfectly possible without banning smoking in every pub, club and restaurant.
Sean,
I agree with what you have to say about compromising, but the staunch antis did not inherit the gene that allows for compromise.
The fact of the matter is, they do not know how to handle this matter in an adult way at all which would include pubs that cater to both preferences on smoking.
And it is a preference. The so called physical "dangers" of second hand smoke has never been proven.
However, "second hand smoke" creates mental damage for some, obviously from reading some of the posts on this blog.
Addiction goes deeper than quitting for a couple of years and then starting again, but anyway the whole point of the altering of the law, is to protect non smokers.
Do you accept smoking is harmful?
The majority of the country does and so does the medical evidence, hence thechange in the law.
As for the Alcohol points made by others, if people do drink then the only liver they are harming is their own, and as for drink drivers etc well that's called passing the buck, what has a drunk driver (which is illegal BTW) got to do with smoking, except he/she may also smoke. I am at a loss to these points aside from deflecting the issues about smoking. Same with drunken brawlers they may or may not smoke, but the fact that they can't drink without causing problems is their issue and should be dealt with as the law allows.
If you enjoy smoking, then great just not in a way that harms others is all that is being asked.
It's not gloating it's called debate, something that many can't do and put up the barriers at the first question.
And talking of drunk drivers, smoking at the wheel should also be banned along the lines of mobile phones while driving, well that law seems to have not worked too well ;-p
May I just remind all the self righteous non-smokers out there that if smoking gets completely banned (God forbid!) the government will raise taxes on alcohol and petrol... they'll have to make up for the lost revenue somewhere won't they?
Two things:-
Firstly Nick Berry, if we were to ban smoking in cars then we would also have to ban talking, music, eating and drinking. Anything that takes your attention from the road is dangerous... would you agree with the above things being illegal, or would they infringe your rights as a member of society?
Secondly, I have on many occasions put out my cigarette if it was irritiating someones health (i.e they can't breathe)or if they were eating. I have also put out cigarettes when there have been children around, But I will not put out my cigarette for someone who cannot give me a reason other than 'I don't want to die of your smoke'.
I am sympathetic to those who have problems that may well be aggrevated, but i have no sympathy whatsoever for people who simply ask because they don't like it.
I cannot beleive that these anti smoking obsessives suddenly think life is wonderful. What about bird flu, the fact that you could be sitting next to someone in a pub or on a bus with a bomb in their bag,people are stabbed every day for no reason.....climate change, if you think you are going to live longer because people can't smoke in public...think again!!!
Smoking when driving is dangerous because you have your hand not fully helping you drive, and the lit end is also dangerous. Eating while driving is illegal, as some drivers have found out. Check your facts first!
After reading Carol Walker's comments, oh dear you forgot to add asteroid hitting the earth.
Really you have no sensible argument do you, so you resort to the hysterical nonsense. Next you'll be saying 'you've got to die of something'.
Nick Berry wrote: "the whole point of the altering of the law, is to protect non smokers."
And that's where you're wrong Nick, either consciously and deliberately, or just because you've been misled. The "protection of nonsmokers" is largely nothing more than an excuse for a weapon that antismokers believe to be very effective in reducing smoking: smoking bans.
Smoking bans make smoking less convenient, less enjoyable, and less socially accepted. This reduces smoking and therefore antismoking extremists are quite happy to push the lie that even the lowest levels of secondary smoke are somehow magically deadly.
Want some real evidence that the claims are based on lies? Just visit the British Medical Journal and read one of the antismokers' main flagship studies there, "The Great Helena Heart Miracle," and the responses critical of it. You'll see that despite tons of public statements and news items to the contrary that the study itself never even analyzed the effects of a ban on nonsmokers themselves, measured exposures to smoke, measured smoke in the air,or any of a great number of other important questions.
On top of all that, the authors recently published a Rapid Response touting a statement that was not only blatantly false, but was a falsehood that they were almost inescapably aware of given their intimate involvement with the study and its statistics.
See in particular the second "Rapid Response" to the study and the last half dozen or so starting at: (excuse the URL breaking... just join the two lines together to get there)
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/
eletters/328/7446/977#67440
Michael J. McFadden
Author of Dissecting Antismokers' Brains
http://www.AntiBrains.com
Well said Gasdoc and claire, Nick Berry thinks us smokers are selfish. I am allowed to smoke outside of work, so I am one of the lucky ones. What about the Doctors and Nurses who are not provided for inside or out. Or others outside in their breaks. I have never smoked so much in my life since I have seen the antis come on here. So if I have any problems regarding my smoking I may well have to sue ASH for causing me so much Stress. Any others feeling it.
It never stops with "we are just asking you to go outside".
Here in the states the nannies are having a heyday with outdoor bans coming into play ..after getting their hands in government with "indoor clean air acts".
A nice little "word play" on their true motives, but many see through the smoke-screen.
More than you think. More non-smokers, too than you would EVER think. The anti-smoker minority on their soapbox of religious fanaticism is having their "day in the sun".
Yet at the end of every day, there is also a sunset.....
There are also companies in the states that are doing "nic checks" and firing workers who smoke.
Weyco and Miracle-Gro are among the leaders intruding into people's loves AWAY from their day job.
So if you think it is all for "the protection of pub workers".....
Pull your heads out of the sand. The door you have opened will meet you where you live.
And I will have no condolences for you when I see you rants about what you have lost.
You invited it in with open arms with your blindness.
Hi Giggling Musician,
No one actually asked the public about the ban, it was imposed on us by MPs who funny enough can still smoke in the bar at the Houses Of Parliment as it is a Royal Palace, how they have the nerve!!!
Well I must say, has it turned into a minority bashing by the proud non-smokers. There should be choice, not a total ban but certain places, that way non-smokers can reside in their place of choice without having to worry about smokers. And us smokers dont have to worry about people putting on fake coughs in order to get the attention of the smokers. For some reason a lot of non-smokers see this as a revolation, ridiculous, people have been smoking (whatever it may be) since BC times. Its a choice, unless the government are planning to make cigarettes illegal (which they wont as they make far too much money out of it) thenpoeple should be able to do what they want.
Well said Claire!!
I lit up in a bar over the weekend end and a group of people sitting about two tables from me started tutting and saying "I'll be glad when that's banned"
Thing was I was in a non food pub, I go in there all the time and these people looked like they had gone for a drink after work as they were all in suits. Where are they the other 364 days a year? At home most likely. So I can't smoke all year on the offchance they might pop in for a sherry or whatever they were drinking!!!
Makes you sick
Post a Comment
<< Home