Common Smoke from Commons’ Folk! One Law for the Common Folk, Another Law for the Commons Folk!

Photo courtesy of the BBC

BBC: MPs have been accused of flouting the smoking ban - and even sneaking cigarettes in the Commons toilets.

Although it is not illegal to smoke in the Palace of Westminster, both Houses decided to ban it from Sunday - the same time as the rest of England. MPs ‘smoking in Commons toilets’ (more)

Mark Alexander

Britons Refind the Bulldog Spirit and Defy Smoking Ban in Their Thousands, in Defence of Freedom
THE TELEGRAPH: Thousands of smokers defied the introduction of the smoking ban across England yesterday by lighting up in pubs, claiming that the legislation was an infringement of civil liberties.

Councils, which have the power to fine smokers who light up inside work places, pubs or any public building, admitted that not a single fine was issued as they tried to implement the ban in a "softly, softly" way.

One pub defying the ban was the Dog Inn in Ewyas Harold, near Hereford, whose landlord is Tony Blows, part of the campaign group Freedom2Chose. He argued that as his pub was also his home he should be entitled to smoke anywhere within it.

"I'm doing it for the simple reason that this is my home. My wife and I work 200 hours a week in this pub. It's private property. There's no way they can stop us doing it," he said. Thousands defy smoking ban in mass protest (more) By Harry Wallop

Mark Alexander

In a Disgracefully Manipulative Move, the Health Nazis Will Now Politicize Children and Turn Them Against Their Smoking Parents
THE TELEGRAPH: Young children are to be mobilized to heap pressure on their parents to give up smoking, in a continuing drive against the habit.

As England awakes to a ban on lighting up in pubs and restaurants today, plans have been drawn up for "smoking cessation support workers" to visit schools to "educate" children about the dangers of passive smoking.

The children will then be urged to return home and "stand up for their rights" by telling their mothers and fathers to stop smoking at home. Children urged to pressure parents on smoking (more) By Adam Lusher

Freedom to Choose: Pro Libertate

FOREST

Mark Alexander

High Court Challenge to Upcoming Smoking Ban

Photo of the Marlboro man courtesy of Google Images

YAHOO NEWS (UK & IRELAND): Campaigners for the right to smoke are launching a High Court challenge over the Government's smoking ban in enclosed public places.

The ban, which starts on Sunday July 1, covers virtually all enclosed public places including offices, factories, pubs and bars, but not outdoors or private homes.

The pressure group Freedom2Choose is planning to lodge papers at the Royal Courts of Justice in London seeking a judicial review.

The group says the ban amounts to injustice and erosion of freedom and personal liberties. Legal challenge to smoking ban (more)

BBC:
Cherie to challenge smoking ban

Freedom To Choose: Pro Libertate

Forest

Mark Alexander

Moves Afoot to Further Restrict Smokers’ Rights
THE GUARDIAN: Children are developing diseases because adults light up in front of them

Children are contracting serious illnesses because of their parents smoking at home, says the government's chief medical officer, who has warned adults not to light up in front of their sons and daughters.

In an interview with The Observer, Sir Liam Donaldson, Britain's most senior doctor, pledged that there would be a further sustained crackdown on smoking after the ban comes into force in England next Sunday.

He promised renewed public health advertising campaigns to try to educate parents who smoke. 'We will strengthen and make regular the message to parents about the risks to their children of smoking. This is something we will need to constantly remind them about. Parents warned not to smoke at home (more) By Denis Cambell

Mark Alexander

More Discrimination Against Smokers. If You Smoke, You Can’t Foster
YAHOO NEWS (UK): Children could be denied a foster family if one of their prospective carers smokes under new guidelines to come into force on the day England goes smoke free.

The UK's leading fostering charity, the Fostering Network, has drawn up new guidance for local authorities and agencies recommending smokers do not foster children under five. Smokers ‘to be stopped from fostering’ (more)

THE GUARDIAN:
Smokers to be prevented from fostering young children

Mark Alexander

Civil liberties are Being Eroded Everywhere. Now, even Dubai is to Follow the Latest Western Craze of Banning Smoking in All Public Places
KUWAIT TIMES: DUBAI: Dubai will ban smoking in government buildings, schools and colleges from today, the first step in a plan to stub out smoking across the Gulf Arab trade and tourism hub by the end of 2009. "Tomorrow will be the launch of gradual steps to regulate smoking in public areas," Zohoor Al-Sabbagh, head of the clinic and community health section at Dubai Municipality, said. "We will start with government offices and educational establishments ... there will be a gradual ban on smoking in public areas," she told Reuters. Dubai to stub out smoking in public (more)

THE TELEGRAPH:
£80 fine for dropping a cigarette butt By Harry Wallop

TELEGRAPH LEADER:
Liberties go up in smoke

THE TELEGRAPH:
Smoke police: who enforces the ban?

THE TELEGRAPH:
Where you can and can’t smoke

THE TELEGRAPH:
Are smokers a persecuted minority?

THE TELEGRAPH:
Smoking maketh man By Andrew McKie

FOREST:
Forest: The Smokers’ Lobby Group

FOREST:
Forest’s Blog

Mark Alexander

The Unintended Consequences of the Smoking Ban

Photo of the ’Marlboro Man’ courtesy of Google Images (US)

BBC: Like most things in life, when the smoking ban comes in force in England on 1 July, it will have unintended consequences. So who and what are the unexpected winners and losers?

The law of unintended consequences is always at work, in every area of daily life. The results can be good, bad and just plain odd. Oops, look what happened… (more)

FOREST:
Scots reject further restrictions on smoking

Mark Alexander

David Hockney on Why He Will Always Be Devoted to Cigarettes
GUARDIAN UNLIMITED: On July 1 2007, the most grotesque piece of social engineering will begin in England: the ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces, imposed easily by a political and media elite. They think it will lead to healthier people and a cleaner atmosphere. They believe they can change people easily. The science of marketing has been absorbed by them and they think they can control everybody. I don't think they can. People will stay at home and do drugs instead - legal and illegal.

I have lived in California for a number of years. They started smoking bans, but they didn't affect smokers that much. In California you move around in your own private space. If one goes to a public space, say the opera or Disney Hall, then because the climate is ideal the smoker can just step outside, at all times of the year. Many restaurants have gardens and the bans have never really bothered me. But something else has happened in California since the bans came in, unreported by the media, and it took me a while to notice because I have spent the past seven years working in England.

The amount of drugs advertised on television tells me what has replaced tobacco (although 20% still smoke): painkillers, Prozac and antidepressants, mostly prescription drugs - you just tell the doctor what you need. When prescription drugs are advertised in the press there is always a lot of small print listing side effects, and on television you get a speedy talking voice listing the side effects. You perhaps hear one word in four - paralysis, diarrhoea, death, headaches. I expect it all to come here. Drugs (legal and illegal) are the world's largest business, and one can understand why, since they make us feel better. ’I smoke for my mental health’ (more)

Mark Alexander

Western Governments’ Sick Obsession with Banning Everything
Not only do we have the threat of our lifestyles being changed out of all recognition by Muslims determined to continue their jihad against the free world, but we also have another form of jihad to contend with these days: the jihad being waged by the health Nazis! Health Nazis ,oh and I forgot the 'safety campaigners', are all obsessed with everything from smoking to consuming alcohol and disciplining your children. (It’s psychologically bad for them, you see.)

This morning, in the Daily Mail, it has been reported that these same health freaks, these same health Nazis now want to ban drivers from smoking in their cars! Where will it all end?

Don’t let these freaks take our rights away from us like this! All these bans are the thin edge of the wedge. Today, it's smoking. What will it be tomorrow? Let the free world remain free! Let people make their own choices! Let people live their lives! Live and let live! - ©Mark Alexander

Photo of smoker courtesy of the DAILY MAIL

DAILY MAIL: Road safety campaigners are urging the Government to ban smoking at the wheel.

Drivers caught lighting up would be given a £60 fine and three penalty points added to their licence under plans put forward by the Local Authority Road Safety Officers' Association, which represents councils across the UK.

From July 1, smokers in England will be banned from lighting up in enclosed public places and at work. The ban is already in place in the rest of the UK.

This means that smokers who drive company vehicles will not be allowed to light up while driving, even if there is no one else in the car. Plea to ban drivers from smoking (more)

FOREST: SMOKE, LIES AND THE NANNY STATE By Joe Jackson

FREEDOM TO CHOOSE: Pro Libertate

Mark Alexander