Cough! Splutter! Public smoking is no longer permitted in Scotland. How long before we follow suit in England? And is the ban such a bad thing? Isn’t it an infringement of civil liberties? Isn’t it a trashing of free-market principles? Or is it just the sensible and grown-up thing to do, after all, marijuana smoking isn’t allowed in public as the law currently stands. Ahhh, but marijuana is still illegal.
Smoking is a choice. It’s not a very clever choice, and it certainly isn’t healthy. But as with all choices, it has consequences. And as far as I’m aware, it’s still legal if you’re over 16. The reasoning for the ban hinges on certain overblown reports on the health risks of passive smoking.
Listen sunshine, standing on the Marylebone Road or cycling in London is a health risk. And you are much more likely to die from those choices. So shall we ban cycling? No, we can’t do that, because if you die on a bike, you’re not likely to kill anyone else. You might inconvenience people stuck in a tailback because of your selfish cycling habit resulting in a traffic incident, and of course, your death, but hey, no one else dies. (Cyclists even lose out against rollerbladers - and if you remember that cunt on rollerblades who killed a cyclist in Hyde Park, you’ll know what I’m talking about! Ban fucking rollerblades! Actually, just kneecap the rollerbladers!) The same rule applies to standing on Marylebone road. You are not going to cause anyone else’s death by inhaling the equivalent of a pack of cigarettes an hour in noxious exhaust fumes.
So we should ban driving. Right? Driving causes more deaths than passive smoking. I will get hold of the figures and post them up here, but I’m not a proper writer, you will have to do your own research. Everything I’ve read on passive smoking shows it to be an overblown load of shit. Every report has been exaggerated or taken out of context or doctored to make it look more dangerous than it is. There are some morons who consider passive smoking to be nearly as dangerous as smoking. These people need to get a fucking life, or go somewhere smoking is not allowed. We don’t need more laws telling us what we can and can’t do.
Let market forces decide these things! If you don’t like passive smoke, go to places smoking is either prohibited, or the effects of which are diminished by efficient air conditioning systems - some of which are so good that if you’re sitting at the next table, you won’t detect any smoke.
Our “free Western society” is turning into an Orwellian nightmare of ridiculous contradiction and foolhardy logic which the masses buy into on a daily basis.
Oh and by the way, Arafat has entered a deeper state of deathness, whilst still being alive.
