Tuesday, May 08, 2007

To smoke or not to smoke ?

This man's job is to enforce the smoking ban in Edinburgh's pubs. In his job he is helped by informers. Nice to know that nanny has created more opportunities in law enforcement and neighborhood watch.

I have never accepted that the state should tell me not to smoke in the company of other voluntary smokers. The problem of passive smoking could have been solved easily but requiring all public premises to provide smoke-free areas. "Ah", says the health fascist, "but we have to consider the health of people working in bars". Can we not find enough smokers who want to work in bars ? Parliament actually went further and banned smoking in private clubs, again justified on grounds of health and safety at work. I suggested to one of the civil servants who drafted these regulations (a Liberal forsooth) that clubs could have rooms to be cleaned by club members, in which no staff could be required to work. His response was that we couldn't trust people to do that. There speaks the authentic voice of the nanny-state. What are we going to do in the Smoking Room of the National Liberal Club now ?

1 comment:

David said...

Janice is having technical problems so I am posting her comment for her.

Re what to do in the smoking room of the National Liberal Club now that smoking has been banned... I suggest nothing much will change, it’s just that the smoke will be coming out of your ears
Janice