You are loved, you are cared for

[altariel]

So the smoking ban is one of those things where I'm brought face to face with the limits of my own philosophy of civil liberty. Because I'd defend to the death my right to die in a ditch in complete anonymity, but I see no good reason why some b*gg*r should be smoking at me while I do it.

Someone on the news (possibly our Malory Towers headmistress health secretary) made a comparison with the seatbelt legislation that came in whenever it was. What's interesting about that is that I remember Liberty spokesgnomes being out in force during that debate, and I don't think I've heard a peep from them over the smoking ban. Of course, they're very preoccupied at the moment trying to prevent schemes like stamping barcodes on all new born babies or eradicating tedious bits of red tape like trial by jury.

Just before Life on Mars there's a programme on benefit fraudsters that I keep on missing. Has anyone seen it? Is it all: "Remember! Responsible citizens shop their neighbours to the authorities!" I'd like to see a jolly and informative programme that says: "Remember: Reponsible citizens groove at the political process!" That would surely be a challenge for a documentary maker.

Comments

[steverogerson.livejournal.com]

What I want to know is why do we have to wait well over a year for the smoking ban to take affect?

[hafren.livejournal.com]

I've always felt that just as the freedom of action of Joe Soap's fist stops well short of my nose, so his freedom to smoke stops short of my husband's asthmatic lungs. When we were last in Ireland it was a wonderful sesne of freedom to be able to go into pubs and cafes without him starting to wheeze. as for private clubs, hell, people have to work in them and they don't always have a choice of jobs.

[snowgrouse.livejournal.com]

DAMN STRAIGHT.

It is not a human right to POISON OTHERS. Grh.

[communicator.livejournal.com]

I have a feelign smokers dont' realise how unpleasant the smell and the acrid smoke is for everyone else. Also the amount of litter and how intrusive it is everywhere. My brother smoked and gave up, and said that it was only as a non-smoker that he realised how unpleasant butts and smoke are - when he was addicted he associated them with pleasurable activity and didn't see they were intrusive.

[edge-of-ruin.livejournal.com]

For me, it's the protection of bar staff that wins me over. These are often people with very little clout who can't just up and find a job elsewhere.

Hope the teaching goes O.K.

[mikekellner.livejournal.com]

I quit for good 14 years ago, and it is one of the best decisions I ever made.

I am torn over smoking, because I really do not want to tell people how to live their lives, yet I do not want to have the smell of tobacco in the air, or on my clothes. Smoking is outlawed in the workplace here, and it also gets very cold in the winter, and I truly feel sorry for the poor addicts I see standing outside office building doors, puffing away. On the other hand, I would hate to have to go to work and have the air be filled with tobacco smoke every day.

I know as a smoker, I had no idea how offensive it could be to others. Now, I can tell who smokes when they pass me on the street or stand near me in a store from smell.

I hate tough choices. If everyone could just be sensible like me, the world would be much easier to manage.

mk

[mikekellner.livejournal.com]

Just a question, to increase my understanding of the situation....

I assume cigarette prices are quite high in GB. Here they are about $3.50, or £2.00 for a pack of 20. From what I understand, most of that is tax, that the actual cost of a few ounces of dry chopped leaves rolled in paper is quite low. Therefore, with something like 50,000,000 smokers buying a pack a day, the revenues to government are enormous.

We do grow tobacco in the US, and the government has farm subsidies for them like it does for all farmers. Politicians never met a farmer they didn't want to give money to, especially in election years.

Therefore, the US and state governments are in the hypocritical position of trying to stamp out smoking, while making vast sums from smoking, and paying farmers to grow tobacco.

I was just wondering if a similar have it both ways situation exists in Britain?

mk

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

We've had a similar ban in NZ for a while now, and it works very well. People hadn't been able to smoke in offices for years, but now it's all restaurants (before there was a smoking area, but in small places that was totally unworkable) and pubs and presumably other places. I now enjoy going to the pub and go a lot more than I used to, and so do a lot of others. The bar staff are very pleased too at the improvement in their health and working conditions. Now if only we could eat at the pavement tables where all the smokers are now...

I wouldn't mind how they killed themselves if it didn't affect others. I think banning something like that is akin to banning drunken driving.

Also, a while back (under National), we also had a 'dob them in' campaign to get people to shop those they thought mightn't need a benefit, and it was very unpopular; they stopped it after people objected.

[vulgarweed.livejournal.com]

Heh, most appropriate place for this icon ever.

I'll come at this from another point of view: I'm a smoker. Moderately heavy and unrepentant. And I've been at it long enough to remember when you could smoke in airplanes, in some shops, at some jobs (I've had some where I smoked at my desk, literally). So the last 20 years has been a process of being always pushed into smaller and smaller corners. The funny thing is, I bitch about of course but I don't truly mind for the most part. I understand the health reasons, I understand the unpleasantness of the smell to many people. I would never smoke in a non-smoker's house or car without explicit permission and I have no problem taking it outside.

Truth is, I enjoy those little five=minute breaks from work every two hours or so. I like having an excuse to step outside and look at something besides my desk and talk to the other people doing the same thing (the majority of my department--it's the newspaper biz!)

What I would like, though, in exchange for my disproportionate tax contribution (as Mike pointed out) is to be able to keep at least one kind of space, and geez, you'd think it would be bars! In 20 years as a lounge lizard I've hardly met any bartenders who didn't smoke themselves, and when I go out to Chicago music scene-type things...well, let's just say that's one of the last social enclaves left where smokers are a strong majority. I think I will definitely go out less when the smoking ban goes into effect here, because it simply won't be as much fun. Why pay cover charges and expensive bar prices just to stand outside like I do at work? A band's gonna have to be really, really good to get me to do that--and just to hang out with friends? I guess we'll all be doing a lot more entertaining at home.

[jomacmouse.livejournal.com]

I can't seem to find it on the SMH's website, but I'm sure one of the news bulletins broadcast on Triple J this morning said that one of the Australian political parties is calling for a ban on smoking in private cars when there are children present, and that police should have the power to pull over cars where such a thing is taking place. I shall have to chase that one up...