The mouse that roars

There are only 2,400 residents of the Channel Island of Alderney, but they couldn't half teach the rest of us a thing or two. More than 60 of them have marched in protest at a proposed smoking ban, carrying a petition signed by 25% of the entire population.

Islander Ken Hampton organised the Freedom of Choice march.

He said: ‘We’ve got a problem in all of the Western governments right now. “Big brother” is taking more and more control and it’s about time somebody took a stand.

‘Curiously, I’m a non-smoker and anti-smoking but this is an issue most people in the island feel very strongly about.

‘A lot of people want to smoke in public and we already have restaurants and pubs with smoking areas and even some non-smoking pubs.

‘Everybody respects the rules – we don’t need a law.’

Of course they don't need a law. Nor does any other nation, merely a grip on common sense. Places for people who like to smoke, places for people who don't. It's that simple.

The 1959 Peter Sellers film, The Mouse That Roared, portrayed a small fictional Duchy which highlighted the nonsensical posturing of the cold war, and now, in its own way, ickle Alderney is making a similar point against the pharma-led maternalistic disease which has infected the brains of legislators the world over.

It's not difficult to understand why the Channel Islanders are so touchy about this, either. It's not so long ago that they were the only part of the British Isles to experience the jackboot of authoritarian rule. Ironically, one of the crops which helped in those dark times was tobacco.

Back in Guernsey efforts were being made to produce salt and vinegar. Others were busy growing tobacco plants, drying the leaves and processing them to produce cigarettes. Bramble tea was another product of the war years.

Additionally, one of their tourist attractions is the duty free nature of their status, all of which renders it even more remarkable that some healthist fashionista is attempting to ignore history, and the Channel Islands' singularity, to suck up to ridiculous and unnecessary authoritarianism.

Just to put into context how impressive this display of clear thinking is from the inhabitants of Alderney, were such a march to occur in the UK, comprising a matching percentage of the population, it would number just under 1.7 million people.

We wish them every success. And in a surreal juxtaposition from 60+ years ago, let's hope that they will continue to be free from the miserable, oppressive, tobacco-phobic existence that the rest of us poor British saps are forced to endure.

Source: This is Guernsey. And you may comment should you so choose.