Brussels is "too clever or civilized"

Time to ditch those Belgian clichés, it would seem.

Remember the days when we used to snigger at that irrelevant, uninspiring land which was somewhere near France? When The Sun used to laughingly challenge their readers to name famous Belgians and come to the conclusion that most only knew two, one of which was the fictional Poirot?**

How things change once a government hell bent on the destruction of everything British get their teeth into closing down every avenue of enjoyment for its citizens. The Guardian is now extolling the virtues of Brussels as a city with a thriving hospitality industry. It's never been so cool.

Untouched by the EU anti-smoking directive, Brussels' cafe culture is buzzing. Here are some great local spots to grab a coffee, or something stronger

As one commenter to the Guardian's piece put it, "Still don't understand why in Brussels there's no smoking ban though...maybe they're too clever or civilized?"

It's a global recession, says Labour. And the smoking ban is universally popular. Considering the vibrancy of Brussels nightlife, one must come to the logical conclusion that both of these statements cannot simultaneously be true. In short, Labour are lying (yes, I know it's an obvious one, but there is a chance that a hermit crofter in the Outer Hebrides may not have noticed it yet).

If even the Guardian are talking up the benefits of not enduring an over-arching smoking ban as a partial reason for a burdgeoning interest in Belgian bars, when pubs in Britain are currently being read the last rites, Labour are in serious danger of having their life support system switched off themselves.

The only beef left-leaning Grauniad readers can find with the story is that the EU might be looked on as authoritarian by the implication that smoking bans are directly attributable to the unelected commissioners (hence the article headline being changed to correct the misconception at 4:47pm today) instead of being laid directly at the door of our weak and illiberal government.

Patronising goons like Patricia Hewitt and fatty Liam Donaldson can bang on about health costs as much as they like, but as this article shows, there is a reciprocal degradation in social welfare which is entirely ignored.

The unelected EU commissioners may well not have passed the legislation which is destroying the social fabric of British pubs, but why the need when we have a lardy unelected cock of our own to do it for them? Liam Donaldson hasn't gained a single vote from any of Britain's 44 million electorate, yet has pushed through the UK smoking ban and is now after your beer whilst his minions are going for your chocolate.

Belgium are too clever for such nonsense. Their objection to silly rules has resulted in a benefit to their country in city travel, at least, and a more relaxed and happy life for all of their population, not just some.

So the answer to the Sun question of naming famous Belgians can now be answered with "all 10 million of them".

** The other was Jean-Claude van Damme, if you were interested.

And the award for righteous cronyism goes to ...

Click to enlarge (Warning: Some may find picture disturbing)

The righteous community were today congratulating one another on one of the most breath-taking instances of mutual onanistic back-slapping ever witnessed.

In an astonishing display of cyber tonsil-tickling Harpal Singh, of Cancer Research UK, nominated Deborah Arnott of ASH for the 'Women in Public Life 2009' awards after she faithfully did exactly what Cancer Research UK had paid her to do.

Mr Singh was gushing in his praise for the camera-shattering doyen of the do-gooders,

"As bullying bigots go, she's the tops! Government give us money to leperise smokers, we bung some to Debs, and she tells the government what they want to hear. Brilliant.

She could use the money for something useful, but each time we think the latest loopy plan that our pharmaceutical partners come up with is too difficult to sell, she comes up trumps by doing exactly as we ask and passing it through to the department of health, who paid us, to pay her, to lobby them for it."

Singh swatted away criticism that there could be better recipients of the award, you know, like people who actually like to help communities instead of urinating on them from a great height, by stating:

"She's a very good helper. She helps herself to a barrowload of taxpayers cash every year, without fail. Plus, I don't think it's right to say she is damaging to communities, I mean, just look at the massive success of pubs since the smoking ban was forced through the public's sphincter with her sandpaper-coated glove. They are so full now when I drive straight past them without stopping, as I always have done, that people are spilling out into the street.

No, she fully deserves the award for the incredible feat of doing the job that she is paid for. I bet you won't find many other women who do that, will you?"

Mr Harpal Singh was brought to you by Pfizer, your friendly neighbourhood multi-national drug-peddler.

Source: Click the title for the link

Gestapo Tactics - Coming to a City Centre near you!

We have often said here at Freedom To Choose, even before the alarmist health freaks bent the ear of our Government into bringing in the most draconian smoker ban law, "who's next!"

In these days of financial self harm by our government you would have thought small startup businesses would be welcome with open arms by local councils! Not if that business sells fast food apparently.

In a bid to save the children from themselves the London Borough of Waltham Forest sent in the heavy mob to close down the newly opened Bamboo Joint takeaway in Leytonstone.

Using anti terrorist style tactics the council were well prepared to save us all, especially the kiddies, from... Jerk Chicken?:

"The hit squad had prepared their raid long in advance.

At 10am eight police officers, some in anti-stab vests, joined three council employees on the doorstep of the Bamboo Joint takeaway.

Their mission? To stamp out the practice of selling jerk chicken within 400 metres of a secondary school."

Eh, jerk chicken? Surely it must have been a Jamaican Yardie plot to rob the afluent schoolchildren of their hard earned dinner money?

"Yesterday, the Jamaican cafe in Leytonstone, East London, became the first takeaway in the country to be given a closure order under guidelines banning the sale of fast food near educational establishments.

Its owners were given three days to shut up shop."

So no Yardie plot then as they were given three days to go. Fries with that officer?

"The action is intended to combat child obesity by reducing the number of shops selling unhealthy fast food near schools and parks."

Oh parks as well, where next for exclusion zones for takaways, swimming pools?

"They were informed by Waltham Forest Council that their small premises, on a busy high street, was not only within 400 metres of a secondary school but also within 200 metres of a primary school and 100 metres from a public park."

Must have been a brain teaser for their man from the council to work that lot out, maybe he asked his kid who goes to the nearby infants school to help him with his homework.

"Co-owner Maureen Farrell, who opened the Bamboo Joint six weeks ago, said she felt she was being victimised by a council which was acting 'completely over the top'."

Victimised, too true luv, err, (can't say luv these days) sorry, Ms Farrell, which makes me wonder what the socio-racial mix of Jamaicans or West Indians in your area is?

Ms Farrell went on:

"They just arrived here this morning and told us they were shutting us down. It looks like we are terrorists or something. 'But all we are doing is selling good food. It's not even unhealthy. We sell Jamaican-style rice and peas, and jerk chicken.

'It is not greasy stuff. And we hardly have any schoolchildren in here at all.'

Your food is terrific Maureen, it's the council that ARE greasy [Jerks!]

"The bylaw was introduced by Labour-dominated Waltham Forest in March."

A bylaw they are proud of, according to their website.

Ah, NuZanu Party of GB, might have guessed really.

"The fast food ban has not been adopted nationwide but its progress is being monitored by other local authorities who could copy it."

As usuall, if one council in this great country of ours takes us closer to an Orwellian nightmare then the other councils, and eventually Herr government, are 'watching it closely to see if they can improve on the nightmare.'

Why were the police involved at all? We could ask them...

"The Metropolitan Police was unable to explain why it had such a strong presence in the raid."

Well that's all righty then. Maybe they've caught swine fever, addles the brains somewhat.

The Nu Puritans

Once upon a time, in our distant land in a distant era, if you didn't match the stereotypical white, Anglo Saxon, heterosexual Christian you were deemed fair game for abuse, derision, denormalisation, hatred, violence and even death.

Thank god those days are over in this land of ours called Great Britain and we have the history books to remind us every now and again how it once was and that we should never go down that path ever again.

And then came the Nu Puritans! The high and the mighty who wear hair shirts and weild their bloody axes to smite those that don't match up (or shape) to their lofty, population mind control ideals in NuZanu Great Britain.

Now we have a new bunch of undesirables to roast on the spit of new found intolerance, the drinker, smoker and the more rotund of us, aka, the obese, (we used to call them fat people but I guess that didn't put the burning tyre around there neck so the puritanical replaced it with OBESE. It hurts when you see it in large print, doesn't it?)

These paragons of virtue who hold sway over our lives these days are eagerly aided and abetted in their hatred of our lifestyles by big business, businesses like Ryanair:

"Tubby or not tubby? Ryanair ponders slapping 'fat tax' on weighty passengers" The headline boasts.

"NO-FRILLS airline Ryanair has moved a step closer to introducing a "fat tax" for overweight passengers by launching a consultation on how it should be introduced.
The move suggests the Irish carrier could follow several airlines in the United States in charging extra for "very large passengers"."

And in true Nazi style the many are encouraged to sharpen their axes by enticing them with money:

"The company wants customers to vote by next Monday on four options for the charge, after the tax came top in a passengers' poll seeking the best cost-reduction idea. Ryanair said revenue from a fat tax would be used to reduce fares"

Ah, those polls eh, don't you just love em? That'll be those polls that were independently conducted and verifiable would it?

And of course if that was not enough to make the more portly of you despise yourselves Ryanair have a few ideas on how one should be damned as OBESE, they've done a few calculations for the witch hunters to ponder:

"The airline has asked for views on whether the charge should be based on a passenger's weight, their waist size or body mass index. A fourth option would require a passenger whose waist touched both arm rests simultaneously to pay for a second seat."

And, of course, where there's a so called 'vice' to condemn then there's a shit for brains group urging, pushing and hollering from the rooftops "go on, go on...it's for their own damn good, we wouldn't say it otherwise!"

"The move won strong support from the National Obesity Forum yesterday as an incentive for passengers to lose weight."

There's more bilge from Ryanair Spokesman Stephen McNamara provided in the article but I've read enough to keep me gagging for a long time to come so I'm keeping my head down and making for the hills, looking for the nearest cave to curl up in and effing die!

Oh, did I forget to tell you that fat people are blamed for Global Warming?

But that's another story.

Should we support this?

It seems some wag has started this petition.

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to resign.

Submitted by Kalvis Jansons of http://kalvis.com – Deadline to sign up by: 22 October 2009 – Signatures: 3,343

Now, we should consider very carefully whether we should support this. Let's do just that by looking at his voting record on our pet hate (click to enlarge).


Yep, I think we should, don't you?

Get stuck in.

Smoking menace becomes airborne

An evil arsonist preparing to pounce, yesterday

Forget Feathers McGraw, there's a new airborne criminal menace on the loose.

Cigarette-loving sparrow sets fire to shop

A sparrow with a habit of feathering its nest with cigarette ends caused a fire at a shop that caused £250,000-worth of damage.

An investigation immediately after the fire found no electrical or gas faults. But six weeks on from the blaze, the 48-year-old was told by insurance investigators that they discovered 35 cigarette ends in the roof.

Their conclusion was that a sparrow must have picked up a smouldering butt to feather its nest in the roof's eaves, thus causing the blaze.

Sniffing the air with his keen smoker-bashing supersense, ASH spokesman Martin Dockrell was quickly on the scene to comment **.

"The government isn't doing enough to stop young birds getting hold of cigarettes",he told a spotty trainee hack from the Lincolnshire Star, who promptly submitted it as copy without checking, so that idiots could read and believe it unquestioningly.

"This tragedy could have been avoided if the bird had made its nest out of nicotine replacement products instead, available at Tesco, Sainsburys and all good pharmacies for £16 for 2 days' supply. Kerching!

Overwhelming research, that someone at Pfizer made up just now and texted to me, proves that more than 60,000 sparrows are attracted to cigarettes after seeing the evil tobacco industry display in their local sweet shop. The debate is over. They then fly into their local pub and buy their fags from a vending machine. Anyone who challenges this evidence is as bad as a holocaust denier.

For the sake of our children, we must halt this growing menace of passive ornithological sidestream shop-burning, which probably might perhaps kill 400,000 people a year in 2009, by the instant banning of tobacco displays and by tipping vending machines over and using them as nice coffee tables for the hordes of non-smoking birds that will flock to pubs as a result.

Oh yeah, did I tell you that nicotine replacement products are fab and you should tell everyone to buy them? I did? Oh, OK."

** He wasn't, and he didn't, I just lied ... like he usually does.

Tales from across the pond

It is often said: Only in America and If America sneezes the UK catches a cold!

There is a big push afoot across the pond to ban smoking in the home and in one state the nutters from Massachusetts are baying for smoker’s blood!

First off all, buoyed by that paragon state of brotherly love towards smokers, California:

When apartment dwellers in Belmont, Calif., complained about cigarette fumes from down the hall, the City Council sprang into action on their behalf, outlawing smoking in apartments and condos and threatening to ticket violators.

But Massachusetts didn’t want to be left out of the ‘let’s stick it to the dirty tobacco enthusiast’:

When tobacco-control activists in Massachusetts embraced the same cause, they made a tactical decision that seemed surprisingly meek in a state long recognized for its prohibitions against harmful habits: They rejected the idea of governmental regulation.

Hurray for common sense! (Oh, there’s a but?)

So, instead, they are leaving it to market forces, convinced that the supply side - landlords - will listen to the demand side - non-smoking tenants - and adopt smoke-free rules.

So, if I live in a large block and the majority don’t smoke, can’t smell my smoke because I have a well ventilated apartment, I could lose my home if I don’t give up my simple pleasure?

Still, even this more gentle strategy is sure to rankle some smokers, who complain of being branded as pariahs.

Too fucking right it will! Rankle? It bloody stinks like the inside of a UK, smokefree, creche of a pub it does.

Stephen Helfer, who has fought on behalf of smokers' rights for years, said there is nothing subtle about efforts that he argues will further marginalize the poor and the mentally ill, who smoke at rates higher than the state average
.
"I think they're trying to almost blackmail landlords into doing this," said Helfer, who lives in a Cambridge condo where smoking is allowed. "The reason they are not trying to regulate it is because they feel they don't have the political will right now. But make no mistake: They're going after us in our homes."

In many respects, the home represents the final frontier of tobacco control.

There was nothing ‘subtle’ about the Nazis in the late twenties and thirties Stephen and it took a very long time for the timid to fight the fuckwits that strip you of your dignity.

But it couldn’t happen here in dear old Blighty, could it???

Not Only But Also

By Colin Grainger

Ten days ago we shared a report with you on the utter uselessness of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) treatments.

We explained that the new study, by scientists in the employ of Big Pharma, concluded that NRT was only successful 1.6% of the time. Lovely bit of spin there. Inverting the numbers reveals a crime of global proportions. They continue to steal money off people, good people, who they have bullied and coerced into quitting, knowing that their product fails 98.4% of the time. This is not big, and it's not clever. I truly hope someone reports them to the Trading Standards office, without delay. It's time these thieves were locked up, and forced to repay the hundreds of millions of people who bought their crap in good faith.

Today's news is rather more startling.

The scientists, not content with proving to us all how useless this garbage is, have now released a study saying that these treatments contribute towards oral cancers.

Not only is it crap, it can also kill you as well. Or, at the very best (worst?), it merely causes your face to fall off.

Reports like this hate sunlight. Big Pharma stock will plummet as a result and we rejoice. At least something good will come out of all this. Big Pharma absolutely hate us for sharing these stories with you.

Which means, of course, that we will keep on doing just that.

ASH, also known as the Marketing Division of Nicorette, should be shunned for the snake-oil salespeople that they are. Barely a newspaper in which they appear fails to mention NRT. ASH will attempt to tell you that they receive no funding from Big Pharma. The actual wording they should use is "We get no direct funding from Big Pharma". The money they do get comes from CRUK (Cancer Research UK) or the BHF (British Heart Foundation), both of whom DO receive Big Pharma funding. They merely rinse the cash and wing some to ASH. It is no cleaner having been laundered by these other two outfits.

We have no love for Big Pharma. (You may have spotted that). But we equally have no love for Big Tobacco either. They are as spineless as the government. No other industry would turn its back on 12 million regular customers, so they get no back-slapping from us.

Our independence is unbelievably valuable. We will not taint that independence by cheering for one side or the other. They both suck, in our considered opinion.

Anyhoo, I've meandered, and I apologise for that.

Whatever else you glean from this piece, remember two things:

1. NRT is garbage. It fails 98.4% of its users.

2. It could well give you oral cancer.

Don't buy it, and warn as many people as you can that it is useless and dangerous.

Link To Story>>

Home Smoking Ban Considered In Soviet Scotland

Colin Grainger

The end game is on the cards.

Prior to rolling out the final solution, Scotland is now actively debating smoking bans in our homes.

It's for the children, you see.

Having ripped away our freedom to smoke everywhere else, only the home remains. And then? All that's left is prohibition.

We didn't put up a fight when they demanded smoke free airline flights of one hour or less back in 1975.

It seemed reasonable.

We didn't put up a fight when they demanded all flights be smoke free.

It seemed reasonable.

We didn't put up a fight when they demanded smoke free cinemas.

It seemed reasonable.

We didn't put up a fight when they demanded smoke free trains, buses, taxis, libraries, and most public buildings.

It seemed reasonable.

We didn't put up a fight when they demanded smoke free pubs, clubs, restaurants, bingo halls and cafes.

They told us it was wanted by all. They told us they would fill these places with non smokers. (They lied.)

Now they are telling us we cannot smoke outside. (Hospital grounds, open air railway stations, and in some cases, on the High Street in front of pubs.)

Does that seem reasonable?

And today we learn that the puritanical Scots are planning a ban for our homes.

Does THAT seem reasonable?

Time to fight back, folks.

Time to say something.

Time to do something.

What they can do to smokers they can do to drinkers, and what they can do to us can be extended to anything these cultists don't like.

They can only do this if we stand by and do nothing.

The choice is yours.

For now.

Link To Story>>