Showing posts with label freedom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label freedom. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
WELT ONLINE: Mehr als die Hälfte der Weltbevölkerung muss auf freie Lebensbedingungen verzichten. Die Organisation Freedom House zählt weltweit nur 89 Staaten, in denen die Menschen frei sind – Tendenz sinkend. Selbst in Europa rügt die "Weltpolizei" mit Hauptsitz in Washington mehrere Länder.
Freedom House, die namhafte Forschungseinrichtung mit Hauptsitz in Washington D.C., beklagt eine „weltweite Erosion der Freiheit“. Weniger als die Hälfte der Weltbevölkerung lebt unter Bedingungen, die man als „frei“ bezeichnen kann, heißt es im Jahresbericht 2010 der Organisation. Im vierten Jahr in Folge überwiege der Rückgang bürgerlicher Freiheiten den Fortschritt demokratischer Grundrechte – die längste Periode kontinuierlicher Freiheitseinbußen in der fast 40 Jahre langen Geschichte der Bestandsaufnahme.
In 40 Staaten registrierte Freedom House eine Verschlechterung der Lage, vor allem in Afrika, Lateinamerika, im Nahen- und Mittleren Osten sowie in den Staaten der ehemaligen Sowjetunion. Der Iran, Russland, Venezuela und Vietnam – ohnehin schon in der untersten Kategorie geführt – hätten ihre Repressionen noch einmal angezogen. Bahrain, Jordanien, Marokko, Kenia und Kirgistan haben ihre zuletzt positiven Tendenzen nicht mehr halten können und wurden gegenüber dem Report von 2009 heruntergestuft. >>> Von Dietrich Alexander | Dienstag, 12. Januar 2010
FREEDOM HOUSE: On January 12, Freedom House released its findings from the latest edition of Freedom in the World, the annual survey of global political rights and civil liberties. According to the survey’s findings, 2009 marked the fourth consecutive year in which global freedom suffered a decline—the longest consecutive period of setbacks for freedom in the nearly 40-year history of the report. >>> Release of Findings, Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Monday, January 11, 2010
AUSTRALIAN ISLAMIST MONITOR – Objectives: Islam in its current form, as preached, taught and propagated by the mainstream Muslim elites, is incompatible with the existing political system in Australia. This is because Islam in this form is not just a religion but an entire political system, and regulatory force, controlling every aspect of the life of its followers and requiring them to actively secure for Islam the dominant, privileged position.
This is not confined to religious dominance, but most importantly it aims to replace our Australian political system and democratic principles with Islamic ones. Moreover, Muslims living in Australia are instructed by their religious leaders that Islamic law (Sharia) has primacy over Australian law. This process has already begun. There is considerable evidence that (here and elsewhere) Muslim leaders use covert means to achieve their goals by subverting existing democratic processes and procedures. Misleading information is given to our political leaders, the community and religious leaders about Islam's final intent. The involvement of other countries with financial and political support poses an additional threat to our nation.
We at AIM believe that this form of Islam (called Islamism) has become a serious threat to the viability of Australia as a Western Democracy, to our egalitarian values, and our freedom. Furthermore we believe that if this process is not stopped now, Australia will become yet another part of the world suffering chronic violence, intolerance (discrimination against non-Muslims which has its basis in the Qur'an) and declining legal and intellectual freedom. On behalf of Australians who cherish their freedom and democracy, we reject Islamism and Shariah in any form.
We urgently call on truly moderate Muslims to reform Islam, so that it becomes a true, personal religion, not an ideology, and can take its place alongside the peaceful religions which make up our multifaith community. Click over and discover a great site! >>>
Australian Islamist Monitor – Homepage >>>
Saturday, August 22, 2009
TIMES ONLINE: In August 1989 as communism collapsed, Britain was a beacon to the new regimes. Today we are squandering our liberty
I’ve spent much of the past 20 years living in or reporting on the former communist countries of Eastern Europe. Nowadays, with Budapest, Prague and Warsaw two hours away by budget airline, it’s hard to imagine that before 1989, half a continent was imprisoned behind landmines and barbed wire, its citizens terrorised by secret police, intentionally ground down by the endless, intrusive demands of the one-party state.
I saw those borders torn down, democracies arise and the basic freedoms that we take for granted — speech, movement and public protest — enthusiastically embraced.
Twenty years ago today the world witnessed the power of the crowd. Hungary’s reformist communist Government permitted the pan-European picnic near the city of Sopron, on the border with Austria, as a symbol of its commitment to a united Europe. The border was to be opened so that about 100 dignitaries and officially approved picnickers could cross freely back and forth. But Hungary was crowded with thousands of East Germans desperate to escape to the West. Many camped near the site of the picnic, waiting for the crucial moment. When the border was opened at three o’clock they surged forward. The guards did not open fire. They stepped back and allowed the East Germans to break through.
This, not the opening of the Berlin Wall in November, was the tipping point. August 19, 1989, accelerated a chain of events that brought down communism and the Soviet Union itself. Such is the power of the crowd.
After 1989 Big Brother was no longer welcome in Budapest, Prague or Warsaw — he moved to London to be ever more warmly embraced by successive Labour administrations. The birthplace of political liberties, the home of the Magna Carta, is now one of the most intrusive democracies in the world. Labour governments have introduced surveillance and monitoring systems of which the communists could only dream. Of course, Britain is not a real police state. But it is certainly sliding further into authoritarianism. >>> Adam LeBor | Saturday, August 22, 2009
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
YNET NEWS: Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar vows to protect freedom in wake of gay center attack
Until this murder case isn’t [sic] solved and the killer’s identity is discovered, we’ll continue to ask: What prompts a human being to massacre teenagers, children really? What was the motive for this demonic act?
At the site of the attack in the heart of Tel Aviv, a two-minute walk from my house, I mostly saw consternation and shock in the eyes of the crowd and passersby. Eyes were teary and hearts cried. As a Tel Avivian, and as a person who had only experienced magical moments on Nachmani Street, where the crime took place, I felt a sour sense of shame rising within me.
What’s happening to Israeli society that leads us from one horrific display to another? What can prompt a person to indiscriminately kill boys and girls who arrived at a site meant to grant them support and security?
We need to be cautious before police conclude the investigation. However, one way or another, waiting for the case to be solved cannot be a pretext for evading a moral obligation. For Israeli society, this is an opportunity to clearly and unequivocally define its commitment to freedom and tolerance. For public officials and leaders, this is the time to pledge that we will protect Israel’s character and future as a free society. Because wherever a person is attacked or humiliated because of his lifestyle, choices, tendencies, or indecision, it is not only the freedom and dignity of that person that are being undermined. >>> Gideon Sa’ar* | Tuesday, August 04, 2009
*Gideon Sa’ar is Israel’s education minister
YNET NEWS – OPINION: End the Silence
The whole of Israeli society must speak up in wake of gay center massacre
“If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door.” That was the political legacy of Harvey Milk, the first politician to come out of the closet in the United States and a member of the San Francisco city council; the movie about his life, which ended in murder as he predicted, was one of the most important films in recent times.
If the murder of the two young people at the gay center was indeed motivated by their sexual orientation, this is the gravest hate crime ever carried out in Israel based on this motive. Yet we must keep in mind that this was not the first case. In the 2005 Jerusalem Pride Parade, Yishai Shlisel stabbed three participants. The latest incident ended on a graver note. >>> Eyal Gross* | Monday, August 03, 2009
*Prof. Eyal Gross, a law lecturer at Tel Aviv University, formerly served as a volunteer legal advisor for the LGBT Association in Israel
Friday, June 19, 2009
Sunday, June 14, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: Until last week, the Bernard family had the normal concerns of any middle-class Dutch family – putting their teenage children through university, living a greener life, and paying the mortgage.
But that has all changed since the European election – and the triumph by Geert Wilders, the right-wing populist and outspoken critic of Islam who in February was banned from entering Britain as a threat to "community harmony".
To many abroad Mr Wilders, a Dutch MP, appears an old-fashioned racist whose views put him on a par with other far-Right politicians elsewhere in Europe.
Yet in its first ever test of national electoral support among the normally tolerant Dutch, his anti-immigration Party for Freedom which he founded in 2006 won 17 per cent of the votes – making it the second biggest party. That has shaken the country to its core – opening up the real possibility that, through the Dutch coalition system, Mr Wilders could win power at the next general election.
Now, like many others in the Netherlands, the Bernards are desperately worried. "This has the feeling of what happened to Germany in the 1930s," said Alfred Bernard, 52, a lawyer. "Wilders blames foreigners for everything. People are disoriented because of the economic crisis. Everywhere there is dissatisfaction with mainstream politicians.
"After this I really believe that Wilders could become prime minister in the 2011 parliamentary elections, or at least set the political agenda."
In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Mr Wilders, 45, was frank about that ambition. Asked about the prospect of taking power in two years' time, he said: "That is our biggest job. We had an enormous success last week and our biggest task is to keep up momentum. I am very confident that we will have an excellent result.
"If my party becomes the biggest party, I would be honoured to be prime minister."
Sitting in his office in the Dutch parliament building in The Hague, protected from the threat of assassination by 10 armed secret service bodyguards, he summed up his antipathy to the religion of many immigrants to the Netherlands.
"Islam wants to dominate our society," he said in fluent and only slightly accented English. "It's in opposition to freedom.
"If people are offended, that's not my aim. I don't talk about Muslims but about Islam. Everything I say is against the fascist Islamic ideology."
To the charge that to many his views appeared to be racist, he responded: "If that was true, we would never have been the second biggest party in the European elections."
Why, then, did Moroccans and Turks living in the Netherlands so fear him? "As long as they don't commit crimes, it's a baseless fear," he said. "If you adhere to our laws, if you act according to our values, you are free to stay. We will help you to integrate.
"But if you cross the red line, if you start committing crimes, if you want to do jihad or impose sharia, we want you to be sent out of the Netherlands and we will get rid of your permits to stay."
An admirer of Churchill and Lady Thatcher, he is charismatic as well as combative. Holland's conventional politicians – mostly dull men in suits – have no idea how to counter his politically incorrect taunts, which outrage the parliamentary chamber but delight his supporters. >>> By Nick Meo in Rotterdam | Sunday, June 14, 2009
Read my essay:
Islam: The Enemy of Democracy and Freedom >>> Friday, April 20, 2007
LIVE LEAK: Fitna the Movie
Thursday, February 19, 2009
THE GUARDIAN: It is shocking how many curtailments of freedom have been imposed. Each one may be small but the cumulative loss is vast
For 30 years I have been travelling to unfree places, from East Germany to Burma, and writing about them in the belief that I was coming from one of the freest countries in the world. I wanted people in those places to enjoy more of what we had. In the last few years, I have woken up - late in the day, but better late than never - to the way in which individual liberty, privacy and human rights have been sliced away in Britain, like salami, under New Labour governments that profess to find in liberty the central theme of British history.
"Oh, these powers will almost never be used," they say every time. "Ordinary people have nothing to fear. It affects just 0.1%." But a hundred times 0.1% is 10%. The East Germans are now more free than we are, at least in terms of law and administrative practice in such areas as surveillance and data collection. Thirty years ago, they had the Stasi. Today, Britain has such broadly drawn and elastic surveillance laws that Poole borough council could exploit them to spend two weeks spying on a family wrongly accused of lying on a school application form. The official spies reportedly made copious notes on the movements of the mother and her three children, whom they referred to as "targets", and watched the family go home at night to establish where they were sleeping. And this is supposed to be modern Britain?
Let's be clear: though the Stasi headline is irresistible, such Stasi-nark methods do not yet make a Stasi state. The political context is very different. We don't live in a one-party dictatorship. But nor is this just "an isolated case", as ministers always protest. Almost every week brings some new revelation of the way in which our government has taken a further small slice of our liberty, always in the name of another real or alleged good: national security, safety from crime, community cohesion, efficiency (ha ha), or our "special relationship" with the United States.
Liberty comes last. As Dominic Raab writes in his excellent book The Assault on Liberty, this government "has hyperactively produced more Home Office legislation than all the other governments in our history combined, accumulating a vast arsenal of new legal powers and creating more than three thousand additional criminal offences". At a press conference today, the organisers of next week's Convention on Modern Liberty - whose moving spirits include the columnist Henry Porter and the democratic activist Anthony Barnett - will present a first attempt to catalogue the liberties we have lost, in a list compiled by the University College London Student Human Rights Programme.
Other free countries, including the US, have overreacted to the threat of terrorism, violating their own basic constitutional principles and legal standards. The peculiarity of Britain is that we have nibbled away individual liberty on so many different fronts. We have been complicit in American-led torture of our own people; at the same time we have eroded free speech in ways unthinkable in the US; and we have become what Privacy International calls "an endemic surveillance society". >>> Timothy Garton Ash | Thursday, February 19, 2009
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback & Hardback) – Free delivery >>>
THE DC EXAMINER: Halfway through “Fitna,” the short film about radical Islam made by Dutch MP Geert Wilders, we see an angry imam, speaking Arabic and telling how it will be.
“We have ruled the world before, and by Allah the day will come when we rule the entire world again!” the translation scrolls, “The day will come when we will rule America! The day will come when we rule Britain and the entire world!”
Score one for the Islamists, where Britain is concerned. The cringing bureaucrats of Gordon Brown’s Labour government barred Wilders from entering the country last week to attend a screening of “Fitna” at, of all places, Britain’s Houses of Parliament.
The 17-minute movie, which has been out for a year and is easily viewed online, seeks to make the case that Islam is dangerously in the ascendant in the Netherlands.
The film is composed almost entirely of scenes where Muslims are doing the talking, but it includes images of terrorist attacks and violent passages from the Quran.
It features clips of radical Islamist preachers calling for the murder of Jews and the defenestration of gays. It shows dead female victims of honor killings, a kneeling woman in a burqa being executed, and a captured Westerner being beheaded by masked Islamic militants.
Now, Wilders didn’t write the Quran, he didn’t bomb the Twin Towers, and where his narrative voice comes in, it’s not even saying anything very extraordinary – not in a world where a lot of people say a lot of things.
With the same material, one suspects that a practiced polemicist like Michael Moore could have made something even more shocking.
But Britain’s first Muslim peer, Lord Ahmed, warned that 10,000 Muslims would march on Parliament if Wilders appeared at the screening.
So the government caved. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith banned the Dutchman for fear his presence “would threaten community security and therefore public security.”
See how easily old freedoms are revoked? You would think that there’s no point in freedom of speech if you can’t use it to say unpopular things.
Yet in Britain – and in the Netherlands, where Wilders faces trial and a jail term for making “Fitna” – that freedom is gone. >>> By Meghan Cox Gurdon, Examiner Columnist | Thursday, February 19, 2009
FRONTPAGEMAG.COM:
Wilders Coming to America >>> Robert Spencer | Thursday, February 19, 2009
Geert Wilder’s English website >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
*Viewpoints expressed in these videos are the viewpoints of the the maker of the videos and the people interviewed therein.
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – USA)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardcover – USA)
Sunday, September 21, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
Friday, April 04, 2008
IT IS axiomatic that freedom of expression is the foundation of human freedom and progress. When people are not allowed to express themselves freely, there can be no debate or inquiry. It is only due to free debate and inquiry that humanity has progressed from the Dark Age to the Digital Age. This is why the first act of every would-be tyrant is to take control of the marketplace of ideas. - Caroline Glick, The Jerusalem Post
It has recently been reported that Susan Winter, a politician (Stadträtin) in Graz, Austria has been indicted for "Incitement and Degradation of Religious Symbols". If found guilty, she faces up to two years in an Austrian jail! Why? Because she had the temerity to speak her mind, she had the chutzpah to speak the truth as she saw the truth to be. After all, she believed, rightly in my opinion, that she lived in a European country which upheld the right of free speech. Not so, it seems.
She stated that the prophet Muhammad was a Kinderschänder, child molester, or paedophile. She also stated that Muhammad was a warlord. There were videos of her speech on YouTube, and even on my own website, but they all appear to have been removed! (God knows who removed them!)
That a person in Europe is now no longer able to express himself/herself freely, and with impunity, augers badly for our future here in Europe, for however repugnant a person’s ideas are, that person should be allowed to express them freely. As Caroline Glick stated (above): "It is axiomatic that freedom of expression is the foundation of human freedom and progress."
One thing that differentiates the world of the West with the Muslim world is this: Until now, we Westerners were allowed to express ourselves freely, without fear of reprisals from the law. The same cannot be said about people’s rights in Muslim nations. Is it, then, any wonder that the West has moved from the Dark Ages to the Digital Age, whereas the Muslim world has not? Whatever vestiges of the Digital Age the Muslim world enjoys can be attributed directly to the progress made by Westerners. For without Western civilization, Muslims would still be riding around on their camels, and would be living in tents.
One must therefore ask oneself one simple, but one very important, question: Is it the intention of European politicians to take western Europe back to the Dark Ages? Or are they just too yellow to speak up for Judeo-Christian civilization, the civilization which has brought the West so much in terms of human progress and development?
Do these weak, wimpish, excuses for politicians not realize that this wonderful civilization is not theirs to give away? Don’t they realize that we are merely custodians of this civilization?
Another recent example of the cowardliness of Western politicians is in their recent reaction to Geert Wilders’ wonderful, short film, Fitna. In that short little video, he managed to encapsulate all the dangers that Islam – yes Islam, not Islamism – poses to the till yet free, Western world.
Yet what has he got for his labours in return? Nothing but a blasting! European politicians, almost to a man, have denigrated this courageous Dutch politician for telling the people what they don’t want to know, but need to know if they are to be able to continue living in liberty.
Balkenende, the prime minister of the Netherlands, is probably the example par excellence of a politician without gonads. Before the film’s release, he had been running around like a headless chicken, trying to minimize the expected fall-out from the release of the excellent film.
If the Dutch government had been able, legally, to silence the brave and courageous Geert Wilders, then there is absolutely no doubt that it would have done so.
So where is all this leading to? Well, the answer to this simple question is quite simple: To no good place!
First of all, it should be stated that it is no good talking the talk without walking the walk. Western politicians are very adept at talking up the benefits of democracy and freedom. But to all but the blindest among us, it should be obvious that they are also adept at taking people’s liberty and democracy away from them! They are running scared; and they are hell-bent on avoiding conflict with an enemy – Islam – which is implacable. But there is a word in most languages for this. In English, it is called appeasement. In French, it is called apaisement, in German, Beschwichtigung. Whichever word you use in your language, it amounts to the same thing: Weakness!
It should be obvious to all that the West has not come to this wonderful place without struggle and strife. In each and every age, we will find our enemies and detractors. In the twentieth century, people had to live with the dangers of Nazism, for Hitler was the enemy of the day. But people back then had a backbone, and they had principle, too. And they were willing to fight for those principles; indeed, they were willing to die for them. They were most unlike the current bunch of excuses for statesmen we have leading us today! Think of them: Brown, Verhagen, Balkenende, Bush, ex-prime minister Blair. The list is endless. They are all wimps; they are all cowards, they are all unworthy of leading the free world.
We should all get one thing straight: Islam is not in the West to be equal to any other faith; rather, it is here to become dominant. Muslims will not rest until the laws of the land are supplanted by the laws of the Qur’an, by the so-called Sahri’ah laws that their god – Allah – is supposed to have sent down to them.
Shari’ah law is anathema to all the West stands for. It tolerates no equality between the sexes. It tolerates no rights for homosexuals. It tolerates no diversity of belief; and it certainly doesn’t tolerate disbelief. If Shari’ah gets the upper hands, we shall all be praying in the direction of Makkah, we shall all be Muslims then.
It is time for Westerners to re-assert their commitment to Judeo-Christian culture, to Judeo-Christian civilization, to liberty, democracy and all that our wonderful, superior civilization has given us. It is also high time for the people to stand up and tell their leaders that we will not be silenced.
As Geert Wilders said, the hour is late. There is little time to lose. If we lose this battle, we shall surely be taken back to a ‘New Dark Age’. No kidding!
©Mark Alexander
All Rights Reserved
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
TOWNHALL.COM: Are Americans tiring of individual liberty?
It sure seems so. How else can you explain the proliferation of laws that regulate the most mundane aspects of our lives, and the mostly passive reaction of Americans to the ever increasing micromanagement of our lives?
Liberty has always been a tougher sell than many of us assume. We all want the freedom to do as we like, but few of us are as committed to allowing others to act contrary to our notion of right and wrong. Majorities have always sought and often found ways to impose their views upon minorities. The most vocal minorities have often been successful in imposing their will on the majority, at least for a time.
So there is nothing new about threats to Individual liberty being a daily part of our lives. What is new is that the institutional barriers to regulating our daily lives have effectively broken down. It took a Constitutional Amendment to pass prohibition of alcohol (and repeal it). Who today expects a Constitutional fight over smoking, obesity, trans-fats, or any of the myriad personal issues now under the purview of government control?
America was founded on the belief that government power should be strictly limited, because the alternative to limited power was unlimited power. The framers of the Constitution were rightly concerned that without strict institutional barriers to the expansion of government powers there would eventually be no barriers at all. Power, in any form, longs to be absolute.
Unfortunately, the concept of limited government is becoming an anachronism in today’s America.
There are no limits on what government can regulate because we have accepted the notion that there are no limits to the benefits government can and should bestow upon us. Fifty percent of health care is paid for by the government—including universal health care for all of us over 65. Your trans-fat laden donut today could mean higher taxes for me in the future. Ditto for smoking and other risky behavior. The pervasiveness of government power over our lives… >>> By David Strom
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
THE FINANCIAL TIMES: President George W. Bush’s “freedom agenda” has run into the Middle Eastern sand. The president himself will be the last to recognise this. Speaking in the United Arab Emirates on January 13, he hailed a “great new era” of “the advance of freedom”. “My friends,” he proclaimed to the assembled sheikhs, “a future of liberty stands before you.” Then Mr Bush flew on to Egypt and lavished praise on President Hosni Mubarak, who threw into jail the last man to run against him for the presidency.
As Mr Bush traipsed around the Arab world, Freedom House – which monitors political and civil liberties – issued its annual report. It lamented that “2007 was marked by a notable setback for global freedom”. The lobby group pointed to events in south Asia, the Middle East and the former Soviet Union. The bad news keeps on coming. The violence and instability surrounding the Kenyan and Pakistani elections has underlined the difficulties of holding democratic votes in relatively poor countries with deep ethnic and tribal divisions.
While Freedom House bemoans the setbacks to democracy in places such as Kenya, Pakistan and Egypt, there will be plenty of others who will shrug and say, in effect: “What did you expect?” The Bush administration has been naive. It is pointless – and often counter-productive – trying to push democracy in countries that are not ready for it. Stability and economic growth must come first.
The constituency for enlightened despotism is strong among businessmen, such as those now assembling in Davos for the World Economic Forum. They know that many of their best markets are countries that do not do well in the Freedom House rankings: China, Russia, the Gulf states, Singapore. Yet they can see these countries getting richer, often at spectacular rates.
Businessmen in rapidly growing autocracies will often enthusiastically endorse the line that authoritarian rule has its virtues. Peace and prosperity are what is needed; a premature move to democracy would invite only anarchy. The fact that both Kenya and Pakistan have enjoyed strong growth in recent years – now threatened by election-related instability – will only embolden the advocates of enlightened despotism. Let us not lose faith in democracy >>> By Gideon Rachman
You can comment on this story at Gideon Rachman’s Blog
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
Sunday, October 21, 2007
MAIL ON SUNDAY: Tubular Bells composer Mike Oldfield has quit Britain because the smoking ban and health-and-safety culture have made life "intolerable".
The multi-millionaire is selling his £3.5million Gloucestershire mansion and has moved to Spain, where he says people have more freedom.
He said Britain had become too strict, with its "ludicrous" emphasis on health-and-safety rules and the increased use of CCTV and speed cameras.
The 54-year-old musician told The Mail on Sunday: "I went to a very strict prep school. You were so restricted. It was one of the worst times in my life.
"Britain has been getting more and more like that, what with this health-and-safety business.
"In my local town, Thornbury, the old man who runs the hardware shop has to sneak out to the backyard to have a cigarette.
What's the harm in him being in the office in the back of his shop?" Mike Oldfield quits 'prep school Britain' over smoking ban (more) By James Tapper and Dave Newman
Mark Alexander
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