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Orwellian


Bugsy
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I was in Jersey a couple of weeks ago where the blanket ban is already in place.  Thank goodness for some thoughtful mates who were prepared to stand outside in the freezing cold every so often while I had a puff!  One very thoughtful place, however, had provided an awning, chairs and patio heater just outside their bar for our use.  Excellent.  Like the drink driving thing when it first came in, I think this is going to have quite an effect on the licensed trade, especially in the winter.  Why would you drive out to a pub just to sit outside in the freezing cold, when you can stay in the comfortable smokey atmosphere of your own home?[:D]
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But think of all the non smokers who haven't been able to go out to bars and pubs for years because of all the smoke. There'll obviously be a time of adjustment but it'll work out much the same; although, perhaps, with different people occupying the space.
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This isn't just about smoking though, it's just another example of state interference in peoples lives. Not much on it's own but when you start to add all these things together, it really does paint a pretty awful picture. When Russia did stuff like this it caused outrage throughout the western world and now here we are watching the UK, under the pretext of 'security', going headlong into a police-state. If you're sitting there saying rubbish, just spend a while and look back to the loss of privacy and increase in secrecy that has taken place over the last ten years. Bring on the revolution........................................
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I wish you had a Tardess, Cooperlola, and could come with me today to visit my mother. She has smoked since she was 12 or 13 and is now 86, she thinks because it hasn't actually killed her its OK, but her breathing is not that good, constantly wheezy.  If you could see the color of the walls, the ceiling and even the pictures in the room she sits in most, everything is covered with a thin brown film. Her mobility is atrocious but she could never have an operation as each time she has in the past there has been a life or death drama connected to the anesthetic, probably attributable to smoking.

Only this week my sister said how 'old ' she has always seemed for her age because she has always been so wrinkled, do you know how unattractive smoking looks?

Then there is the smell, if I have been there, everyone knows, you can smell it.

Sadly my son smokes, but he isn't allowed to smoke indoors at all.

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I cannot precisely remember who it was but there is an American author (not Kerouac, but somebody of that ilk and generation) who is now in his 80's and has smoked a couple of packets a day all his life, once remarked that he was going to sue Marlborough because their cigarettes said "Smoking Kills" on the packet and it had failed to do so in his case!  Don't worry, I do realise smoking is bad for you - it's difficult to say this could espace one's notice these days, no?  Now, where did I put the Gauloises?
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It is a bit sad, but what the heck. I have never smoked. Me and my friend used to be the only ones who didn't and we got everybody else's second hand smoke for years and years and it was always foul. We will swear that it all used to come towards us, it felt like it, even if it didn't. I know reformees always râle about those who still smoke, but it was always bad.

I really don't care what they do about smokers, I had to put up with it for years and years and now I enjoy being out in a non smoking atmosphere. I feel like for once I am being given the liberty to breath clean, well cleanish air and I am really glad. 

So Vivre le liberte for non smokers!

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I'm with you on this TU; we've had to put up with it for years! Smoking and non smoking areas? Usually all it means is "smokers to the left, non smokers to the right" -  as if smoke has a sense of direction. If smokers' groups and the tobacco industry say that a smoking ban is a bad thing then it would automatically get my vote; sometimes you need government intervention to fight the depradations of industry. Give me Big Brother over big business everytime!
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[quote user="KathyC"]

.....................................sometimes you need government intervention to fight the depradations of industry. Give me Big Brother over big business everytime!

[/quote]

Just wait Kathy C & TU until this obscession with controlling our lives affects you and something you do. It's a pretty simple ploy to target minority groups and pick them off one at a time and then you wake up one morning and it's all gone.

Look and consider just these three;

Gun Law. The banning of legally-held handguns. Has it stopped or even reduced gun crime, no, in fact it's increased dramatically.

Hunting. Has it in any way stopped cruelty to animals, no.

4x4 ownership. Will it make the slightest bit of difference to global warming, no.

And, before you react I agree with you both on smoking but this is about a much bigger issue.

Now, if they could invent a camera system that catches people driving badly or using their mobiles or messing with sat-navs whilst driving, now that I would welcome.

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I'm fiesty enough to fight the erosion of other libertys. But this is about me getting a  liberty I have been denied all my life and it is about time too.

I don't see how they can enforce it unless they enforce it. AND the truth is that once the ban is in place, it will annoy me even more than it does now when people smoke near me. So for the forseeable future, I want this enforcing.

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[quote user="Bugbear"]

 

Gun Law. The banning of legally-held handguns. Has it stopped or even reduced gun crime, no, in fact it's increased dramatically.

Hunting. Has it in any way stopped cruelty to animals, no.

4x4 ownership. Will it make the slightest bit of difference to global warming, no.

[/quote]

No objections to new laws on any of those - perhaps only one group is being targeted?

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I think we’re muddling two separate issues here. The first is the ban on smoking and it’s my guess that most people think that banning smoking in public is a reasonable thing to do. The second is the training of large numbers of people to help ensure that the law is obeyed. I don’t think they are necessary; I feel pretty confident that the people who don’t like to be in a smoky atmosphere are in a majority and the law will give them confidence to complain if someone lights up near to them in a pub or restaurant. It seems odd to me that the government can find the money to do this when there are much more important things to spend our money on.

Hoddy
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Since the Scottish smoking ban was introduced, last year, there have been about 10 people prosecuted. By my maths that's 10 x £50 fines = revenue of £500. Mr Blair proposes to give councils £29.5m to police the smokers, to me that doesn't seem a very prudent way of balancing the books.................Unless your name is Blair/Brown.
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[quote user="KathyC"][quote user="Bugbear"]

 

Gun Law. The banning of legally-held handguns. Has it stopped or even reduced gun crime, no, in fact it's increased dramatically.

Hunting. Has it in any way stopped cruelty to animals, no.

4x4 ownership. Will it make the slightest bit of difference to global warming, no.

[/quote]

No objections to new laws on any of those - perhaps only one group is being targeted?

[/quote]

I suspect I know where you're coming from and you couldn't be more wrong....................I'll bet you drive a japanese car.............[:)]

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My close neighbours run a bistro, I recently posted here how nice it had become on their first day of voluntarily enforcing the smoking ban.

Before now she would not allow her young daughter in the area at night because she was worried for her health, she and her husband also hated the fumes.

Last weekend I went bowling with the family, the bowling alley had a smoking ban in and around the lanes but not in the bar area, we were there until 2am (with her 5 year old daughter) and the mother smoked at the table most of that time (she like many others smokes when she goes out) we came very close to falling out when I suggested that she smoke outside or that she was being unfair to her daughter and also hypocritical.

Vive la difference!

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[quote user="Bugbear"][quote user="KathyC"][quote user="Bugbear"]

 

Gun Law. The banning of legally-held handguns. Has it stopped or even reduced gun crime, no, in fact it's increased dramatically.

Hunting. Has it in any way stopped cruelty to animals, no.

4x4 ownership. Will it make the slightest bit of difference to global warming, no.

[/quote]

No objections to new laws on any of those - perhaps only one group is being targeted?

[/quote]

I suspect I know where you're coming from and you couldn't be more wrong....................I'll bet you drive a japanese car.............[:)]

[/quote]

Eh?

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