Guten Morgen, Herr Smith. Papieren, bitte. Ve heff noticed zat you are driving zis privately-owned, taxed, tested and insured vehicle mit ein zigaretten in your handen. I am ein Überuntergruppenoffizer of zer council’s thought polizei, sturmtrooper divitzione – my name vill not concern you. Ve know you heff no children und are sechzig yahren old, but at some point ein wunderkind might be placed in zis vehicle und catch meniingitis through zer passive smoking. I heff to advise you zat such behaviour is not to be permitted. Resistance is futile. For you, Herr Smith, zer war is over. BANG…….
I woke this morning, made coffee and wandered through to the lounge as usual to read any emails, all the online newspapers and then the Guardian. The Brown Bullshine Conspiracy is giving blanket, unquestioning coverage both on “Breakfast TV” and “Today” radio to assorted health and control freaks, spokespersons and bunny-huggers who want to make illegal the smoking of a cigarette in private vehicles (first step) and subsequently in parks and any other open spaces accessible to the public, i.e,”outside” . Now, I am a non-smoker, but if a chap (or chappess) wishes to partake of a gasper in the privacy of their own vehicle then that is their own business and absolutely no concern of the authorities.
And another thing. Since when did the authority to uphold the “law” pass from the police to untrained, unaccountable, uneducated council officials? Dear God, it’s not even nine o’clock yet and already my fur is frizzing. I fear the imminent onset of a “Christina” moment.
OZ
Boadicea's Chariot 
OZ, the article quoted a number of chidrens’ deaths supposedly linked to ETS in these places. I bet none of the people who wrote the nonsense are old enough to have been in a cinema in 50’s or 60’s…
PS. Just more crap science.
Not again.
It is forbidden to smoke in a car with anyone under 16 in South Australia…
Yup OZ,
And Janus’ acceptance that there is absolutely nothing wrong with this convinces me that he is trying to wind us up.
It will soon be all over, Australian scientists have discovered a drug that will not only stop lung cancer dead in its tracks it also stops any harm coming to a person from cigarette smoke.
http://ibtimes.com.au/contents/20100318/smoking-anti-gm-csf-smoko-proofing-drug.htm
IS,
There is bad science then there is just waste of everyones time science. That bollocks drops neatly into the latter category.
I saw an article in the New Scientist today which said that many science and medical journals are refusing to publish studies financed by tobacco money. By all means refuse to publish bad science or poorly written articles, but this reeks of prejudice and is itself bad science.
If these Government wonkers are so against smoking, why not just ban tobacco? They get on my thrupenny bits and these Labour barstewards do it big time! 😦
Dammit, I thought rolling gas chambers were such a neat idea!
Back to the drawing board!
(Fur smoking not frizzing)
Sincere apologies to all. I would never be so rude as to post a blog and then not monitor it and reply to anyone who took the time to post a comment, but I was called to assist in a small emergency across the valley and have only just returned. Please allow me to work through the comments.
OZ
Aren’t you glad you are home? I suspect your visit to the UK was enough to make you totally distrait let alone smoking fur!
I read the Telegraph every morning online, quite why I don’t know any more. Have to retreat to the greenhouse to cease exuding clouds of xyklon B and reduce blood pressure!
I do wish Wales would declare UDI however poor it would become. I’d be home in a flash then.
Bravo – I have read and re-read my post and cannot see any reference to any “quote”. Please excuse me if I am being incredibly thick, but which quote? As for the “crap science”, totally agree.
OZ
Janus and Ferret – I value the input from both of you and have no wish to take sides. 🙂
OZ
Boadicea – For “forbidden”, read “verboten”. Look, I was the front seat passenger in a smoking friend’s car a few years ago when he lit one up. Havng done so he cracked his window open. The draft sucked all his exhaled smoke and any residual smoke from the cigarette straight outside and I never smelled a thing.
But never let the practical realities of life intrude on a gobmint opportunity to raise revenue via fines backed up by stupid legislation.
OZ
IS – If I were the scientist in question I would be very afraid. The “perceived” science and the gobmint recipients of all the taxes would want to, er, “dispose” of the problem and one would have to rely on the protection of the tobacco barons in order to stay alive.
OZ
I do remember that driving while smoking did cause a problem once when a sudden manoeuvre was called for. And I would not smoke if other people were in my car, but apart from that… I can’t understand this government. They’re letting their stupid PC get in the way of earning badly-needed revenue, as well as infringing smokers’ “yooman rights”. Cigarettes are very cheap here in Gib and there are a lot of smokers. Spaniards come over the border to stock up here. I saw one chap reselling his stash, packet by packet, in La Linea. The Spaniards too have a very relaxed attitude to smoking. What is the matter with Britain that we put up with these jobsworths? Perhaps they’ll be made redundant when Cameron’s cuts hit.
Sipu – I suspect it is not the same when a “global warming” study, financed by a taxpayer-funded IPCC, for example, is ready to be foisted onto a gullible, ignorant and (most importantly) compliant taxpayer.
OZ
Tocino – Ban tobacco? Good God, man. Think of the taxes. Will nobody think about the taxes?
OZ
Christina, sweetie, if I may be so bold (and will probably come to regret the unwarranted familiarity), I am very glad to be home. I have a problem whereby the family in the UK think that because I do not want to visit the UK then, by defintition, I do not want to see them. Nothing could be further from the truth. They know where I am and they are always welcome.
OZ
OZ don’t think the soubriquet fits!
CO will do!
Totters off exuding fag smoke and general toxic emissions in greenhousewards direction. Too early for claret emissions.
Thank God for plants.
Take your point about the relatives, why can’t they visit you?
I am now in the fortunate position of not actually having any living relatives left who would expect invitations. My friends, of whom curiously I still have quite a lot in Wales, are welcome any time and tend to invite themselves. Most welcome provided they bring offerings of Yorkshire tea and arrive in jackboots!
(With refills of xyklon B for auto!)
Sheona – Your comment opens up a whole can of worms. Firstly, why does the gobmint pay lip service to the “PC” brigade whilst continuing to collect taxes from smokers.
Secondly, and more importantly, there always seems to be “fifth column” within the UK promoting issues such as EU law, “multiculturalism” and anything anti-British at th expense of the national interest. Would such behaviour be allowed in France, for example, or Germany?
OZ
CO – Phew! I think I was let off lightly, although the “general toxic emissions” bit does make me concerned about your diet. 🙂 Agree totally re visitors. You want to visit? Then bring locally produced Lancashire black pudding, which is one of the few things that fits the lock on the front door.
OZ
OZ, my apologies. I was writing early in the morning, first cuppa and smoke, like, and I assumed, and I had just read the article in today’s Telegraph. Mea culpa.
Bravo – No need to apologise. Even the Great Bear himself needs at least a couple of cuppas to get him going in the morning.
OZ
OZ, I think you’re absolutely right about the fifth column – the Polly Toynbees, Jasmin Alibhai Browns, Trevor Phillips until recently. I read somewhere that the tax collected on cigarettes paid for a substantial chunk of NHS spending, assuming it ever got there of course.
Guten Abend, Herr Wolf. I’m seriously considering my position on all this unwarranted and unwelcome interference by the Forces of Socialism.
So, I will eschew vegetables, exercise, and everything and anything that they recommend for a healthy lifestyle. I shall try my level best to take up the consumption of any substance which they have declared to be antisocial, bad for my health or that of my neighbours, stop recycling forthwith, if not sooner, and take up riding to hounds as soon as I can acquire a suitable mount.
Christina (and apologies to OZ for the digression)
I think if Wales declared UDI you would certainly not want to live there, since it would be ruled exclusively by Labour and fellow lefties Plaid Cymru. It is the misfortune of English taxpayers that we have to subsidise socialist dependencies like Scotland and Wales.
PS Did you know that Arriva Trains Wales travelling to Manchester now have “Manceinon” as well as “Manchester” on their destination blinds? If that’s not taking the p*ss, I don’t know what is.
Sheona – Jasmin Alibhai Brown is but one reason why The Cave’s television has a screen guard, but she is not fifth column being of the, erm, wrong hue, likewise Trevor Phillips. Polly, however, fits the bill in every respect.
OZ
On the question of visitors – we live too far away for most of the family to visit us.
However, I do wonder why it is that when I return to England everyone expects me to visit them? Only one person has ever said “You’ve travelled from the other side of the world, the least I can do is come to London to see you”. What’s interesting is that she is the furthest friend / relative away from London, yet year after year she has travelled to visit me… we now meet half-way in Edinburgh.
tambman, I vote Plaid at every election and have done since the seventies!
They may be left wing but they are anti immigration of anyone and everyone of any colour, just my cup of tea!
It’s OK, Oz, my side is already full up.
I came across this article quite by chance – No, really, I was looking for something else, but it makes a couple of pertinent points.
>Let’s set aside the moral argument and instead question the logic of outcomes. By far the biggest cause of child harm — physical, mental and emotional — is the widespread misuse of alcohol and drugs, which causes a lot more damage than asthma.
Funnily enough, no one is calling for a ban on home consumption of alcohol. Politicians can’t even agree on a minimum price structure. Why? Because everyone knows that a ban would be totally and utterly unenforceable, in much the same way that illegal drug use is unstoppable.
Likewise, I don’t see any of the medical colleges coming out and telling women who are poor or of low intelligence that they shouldn’t get pregnant because statistics suggest their babies will suffer. But the outcomes say they ought to.<
The full article is here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/melanie_reid/article7074771.ece
Hee Hee Hugh,
Agreed chum. It’s full up WITH that I take issue. 🙂