Harassment, pure and simple?

Is this how it has become? You are harassed into being an hypochondriac???

I’m a Doctor, trust me?

This is not the first phone call I have received this dying year from my local doctors surgery asking me about my smoking habits where I have refused to reveal it, one way or the other, but I guess they know by my intransigence that I am a proud smoker.  Today they surpassed themselves.

The first phone call this morning came from the practice nurse who “needed to update her records” and wanted to ask me a few questions whilst saying she was sorry for phoning me on New Years Eve. I said “I’ve an idea what you want to know, but please continue.”

She then went on to ask me if I had the Flu shot, Swine Flu shot, another shot I’d never heard of and whether my height and weight still remained the same before leaving the question I thought she would have asked first, do you smoke.

I explained, on political terms,one by one, why I didn’t have the Flu shot, Swine Flu shot etc and would not divulge if I smoked or not, telling her that I was a member of F2C and was diametrically opposed to the smoking ban and my political stance on it (I was fuming by then, no pun intended) and I ran their office. The upshot was that she told me that the practice would not ask me those questions again…I’ll wait with baited breath!

Two hours later!

The head receptionist phoned me up (I answered in the same tone as above) with one question about Beryl’s (my wife) health* but didn’t ask me if she had her Flu shot, Swine Flu shot, or the other Flu shot I’d never heard of, or her height or weight or her fucking Alzheimer's …no, she asked if she still smoked!
 
Once again I was told that these questions would not be asked of me…I wait with baited breath.
You have to ask the question WTF is going on today?

*Because of Beryl’s Alzheimer’s I have legal authority to act and speak on her behalf but that does not stop me from feeling terrible for her not being able to, especially where her health is concerned, say what she thinks. I know she is a mild smoker and, in her present condition, she hates this intrusion into her smoking habits. She does not understand this vicious smoking ban when she socialises.

Thought for today... And maybe tomorrow. Merry Christmas everyone...

...even to those who hate me for my lifestyle choices... now there's a buzz word or two if ever I heard them!

I'll let my doppelgänger explain:

Stress

A lecturer when explaining stress management to an audience,
Raised a glass of water and asked,
"How heavy is this glass of water?"

Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g.

The lecturer replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter.
It depends on how long you try to hold it.
If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem.
If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm.
If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance
In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes."

He continued,
"And that's the way it is with stress management.
If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later,
As the burden becomes increasingly heavy,
We won't be able to carry on."

"As with the glass of water,
You have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again.
When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden."

"So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down. Don't carry it home You can pick it up tomorrow."

"Whatever burdens you're carrying now,
Let them down for a moment if you can.
So, my friend, Put down anything that may be a burden to you right now. Don't pick it up again until after you've rested a while."

Here are some great ways of dealing with the burdens of life:

* Accept that some days you're the pigeon,
And some days you're the statue.

* Always keep your words soft and sweet,
Just in case you have to eat them.

* Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be
"Recalled" by their maker.

* If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.

* If you lend someone £20 and never see that person again,
It was probably worth it.

* It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to be kind to others.

* Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time,
Because then you won't have a leg to stand on.

* Nobody cares if you can't dance well.
Just get up and dance.

* When everything's coming your way,
You're in the wrong lane.

* Birthdays are good for you.
The more you have, the longer you live.

* You may be only one person in the world,
But you may also be the world to one person.

* Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.

*A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery

On a detour.

Have an awesome day and know that someone has thought about you today . . . I did.

Have a Happy Christmas dear readers and have a very, very Merry New Year. All within government guidlines of course...yeah fookin' right!

TheBigYin

Let the festivities begin but...

By John Watson

You are invited to this year’s New Years Eve party, I regret that The Healthists have laid down a few rules before it is permitted:
 

OFFICE OF ANTI-FUN AND GOOD HEALTH

　
NEW YEAR’S EVE PARTIES:

In line with Anti-Fun and Good Health Policy the structure of New Year’s Eve Parties has been revised:

OBESITY.

In order to reduce expenditure on healthcare for the clinically obese the following orders are implemented:
1) All meats served will be lean or meat substitutes.
2) The use of butter is forbidden.
3) The eating of Haggis ‘neaps and tatties’ is forbidden.
4) Ethnic foodstuffs remain unaffected.
5) The serving of Crisps, Savouries, Hotdogs, Hamburgers or Kebabs are strictly forbidden.
6) No salt permitted.


By order:

Horace Beanpole.

Essengauleiter (District Leader Eating) UK.

DRINKING.

In order to reduce expenditure on healthcare for alcoholism the following orders are implemented:
1) All beers are to be low alcohol.
2) Absolutely no Spirit’s with the exception of Ghosts, Ghouls And Poltergeists.
3) All soft drinks are to be sugar free.
4) Energy drinks will be permitted for those over 65 years provided they are accompanied by both parents.

By order

Sir Reginald Ratted-Boozey MBE. OBE.

Trinkesgauleiter (District Leader Drinking) UK.
　
TOBACCO.

In order to reduce expenditure on healthcare for Smoking Ailments the following orders are implemented:
1) There is to be no smoking indoors.

2) Smokers will be provided with an outside enclosure not less than 1000 metres from New Years Eve Parties.

3) Armed guards, razor wire, searchlight towers with or without machine gun posts and dogs are available from your local garrison on request.

4) Demonstrations such as the singing of Auld Lang Syne are forbidden.

5) Any attempt to have fun is forbidden.

By order:
　
Sheila von Gorbals.

Rauchsgauleiterin (District Leader Smoking) UK.

By order this day 22-12-10

Heideki Banzai III.

Deputy Fuhrer Anti Smoking.

Stanley Von Grass.

Fuhrer Anti Smoking.

I wish that you all Have A merry Christmas and a Very, Very, Happy New Year!

John Watson.

 Happily filtched from the Taking Liberties blog.

True Irish logic & eleutheria !

In 2004 Southern Ireland were basically bludgeoned into implementing a smoking ban, which they duly did.

Nothing much was said about it over here as it obviously did not affect us at all. The problem was that nobody thought to publicise the fact that in the first year alone 1,000 businesses closed throughout the country. Now, for a relatively small country that is one hell of a lot of businesses! I cannot imagine the cost in revenue to the government but then I'lI suppose they never really considered the losses either amid the furore of being the trend setters in smoke-free!

In a bid to curb smoking habits the government had a brainwave; that being to ban the sale of packs of 10 cigarettes-the logic being that 'ten packs' were all that teenagers (and lesser ages) could afford. Hello? Anybody consider that young Seamus & young Tommy might pool their resources and by a twenty pack? Apparently not, so that was a complete waste of time and effort on the part of the Dáil Éireann.

The next 'gem' was the inevitable increase in the price of a pack of twenty, which at € 8.55 a pack “are the highest in the world”. So that's the smoking problem sorted then-again!

On top of that the goverment ensured the ending of in-store displays and advertising for tobacco products, presumably under the misguided premise that what you can't see you won't buy! Righty ho then.

Southern Ireland is now the laughing stock of Europe unfortunately for not only has the smking ban cost them £millions in lost revenue from now closed businesses, it is costing them £millions in lost revenue from tobacco sales! Now you would think that this loss might be acceptable but that is far from the truth because smoking rates have increased by at least 2% and tobacco sales have fallen due to the amount of smuggled tobacco coming into the country!

The Irish government now estimate that they are losing out on £1m per week in tobacco revenue but who can have any sympathy with them? They have ensured that a nation of carefree smoker/drinkers lose 1,000 watering holes, kicked the smokers out of whatever is left and yet still expect to profit from the exercise.

Unfortunately for them, their populace has stuck two fingers up at them-and fair play to them for that! Link:- http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/1217/1224285736185.html

Meanwhile the Greeks have done their ususal and gone way OTT in refusing to accept a smoke ban! There, they have made their disapproval clearly known as a spate of letter bombs in Athens and widespread ignoring of any form of ban.

You see, the greeks take these things rather seriously, well, as a personal affront actually so there is plenty of chance of civil riots kicking off again if the government tries too hard to enforce the ban. It appears that even the health minister admits that the smoking law cannot be effectively implemented so I don't think there will be much compliance-if any.

Link:- http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2010/1217/1224285735360.html

Amazing really when you compare the diabolical lethargy by licensees in this country to the volatile Greeks and the slow but methodical Dutch. The Dutch soon got 1,200 licensees together @£250 per annum each to fight for their rights-and they won. They now have the right to earn a decent living and contribute to the Dutch economy once more. What do our miserable lot do? SFA-that's what! Instead of forming a licensees army to take on the government they sat back and continue to sit back in the hope that they survive! You see, the fundamental difference is that the Greeks believe in "eleutheria" (freedom) whereas we do but don't really want to do anything about it-until it's too late.

Wake up you numpties, what have you got to lose-apart from what little bit of sanity is left!

I didnn't realise what was happening!

I was just merely getting on with my life in my own way until the moral majority decided that I was declared persona non grata! I was deemed  a non person, someone that has a lifestyle (smoking a fag is a lifestyle?) that someone else does not agree with, which I have heard most of my life but it never came to a head until recent years when it was declared open season on smokers..then all hell let loose!  WTF have I done wrong? Am I black? Am I a Jew? Am I a homosexual? Ok, maybe not a Fauxmily but it is appropriate in this instance.

Now I am an outcast because of my ‘lifestyle’ as a smoker. I am deemed not worthy of sitting alongside  my fellow human beings that do not smoke, whether they object or not, because the law lies lays in the pretence of the non-smoking friends of mine, the pretence that my smoking, and to be particular, the Second Hand Smoke that I give out, is lethal to the point of death!

Would I do that to my beloved friends and family? No! Why?? Because I know that SHS is nothing more than an irritant to the non smoker.

Now I’m no scientific genius, just a smoker who knows a con when I hear it and am appalled at the suggestion that I am killing all around me by my ‘lifestyle.’

I want the smoking ban in the hospitality industry REPEALED…but I am told that that is unrealistic, I am told that the general public love the ban, I am told many things by many ‘informed’ people with vested interests what is good for me and I am also told that the DEBATE is over, period!

It doesn’t matter what ‘lifestyle’ choice I partake of, having an enjoyable puff on a cigarette/pipe/cigars/shish pipe or imbibe the new taboo, alcohol, or like a burger now and again and even like a shake of salt on my food there is a fascist out there who has the ear of government and the government listens without question because they are concerned about us dying without reason, the same government that sends our sons and daughters to their deaths on a whim and expect us to accept the same old drone that the DEBATE is over, period!

Well the debate is far from over, no matter your hatred of  that debate.

Below is an edited version of such a debate about the smoking ban here in the UK and the recent rolling back of the ban in the Netherlands. Listen to Wiel Maessen’s common sense approach to anti business, anti smoking nannyists with an axe to grind who are terminally offended at the drop of a hat.

Listen at the absurdity of the Dutch passing a swinging smoking ban whilst  trying to hang on to it’s liberal attitude about smoking pot, a thing I have never done in my life but will not condemn anyone that does so. Nor will I condemn someone that eats at McDonalds or drinks too much wine!

Listen also to one of my hero’s in the anti smoking debate, Nick Hogan, who ran a successful hospitality empire in the North West, and note the word HOSPITALITY, business and suffered the consequences of defying the ban by a) losing his business and b) losing his health!

And there's more...

Petition from Save Our Pubs & Clubs

Sign the petition against more EC regulations!
The smokers’ lobby group Forest, a leading member of the Save Our Pubs & Clubs coalition, has launched an online petition against new proposals to regulate tobacco throughout the European Union.

The Morning Advertiser reports that proposed changes to the European Commission’s Tobacco Products Directive include a ban on the display of tobacco products, the introduction of plain packaging, the enlargement of picture warnings on packs and the prohibition of all types of smokeless tobacco products.

“We support measures that educate children and adults about the health risks of smoking, but we oppose unnecessarily restrictive regulations that are designed to denormalise a legal product and will threaten jobs and small businesses and inconvenience millions of law-abiding citizens throughout Europe,” said Forest director Simon Clark.


“We urge everyone who opposes these proposals to sign the online petition that will be submitted to the EC as part of the consultation. It is essential that we make our voices heard in Brussels as well as in Westminster.”


Clark, who is also director of the Save Our Pubs & Clubs campaign, added, "Although the consultation is about tobaco products, it is all part of the war on tobacco. If we can influence this battle it will put us in a stronger position to address the issue of smoking in pubs and clubs."

Signatories to the petition will be delivered by Forest to the European Commission in Brussels on 17 December. To sign it visit www.forestpetition.eu.
.................................................
 
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Copyright (C) 2010 Save Our Pubs & Clubs All rights reserved.

Freedom 2 Choose Newsletter

Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Conference of the Parties, fourth session
November 15 - 20, 2010

Organised by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the FWTC Conference of the Parties is a biennial gathering of anti-tobacco delegates from any country (or Party) that has signed or ratified WHO’s international treaty, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

November’s gathering, in Punta del Este, Uruguay, is the fourth such Conference of the Parties - hence COP-4 - and continues its self-appointed task of framing and implementing anti-tobacco measures around the world. Working groups appointed at Conference spend the next 2 years examining specific articles on the Conference agenda and drafting new guidelines in time for the next COP gathering, at which their drafts are amended and/or voted for inclusion within the treaty.

The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control is a work in progress.

On the agenda at COP-4

Article 6: Price and Tax.

Both are too low, according to the Framework Convention Alliance. Developing countries have most to gain, but even countries long familiar with the notion of Sin Tax could be squeezing more out of their smokers.

Article 9: Regulation of the contents of tobacco products
Article 10: Regulation of tobacco product disclosures

These two articles have triggered widespread opposition from tobacco growers, especially fearful that article 9 (banning additives and flavourings used to enhance the taste of burley tobacco) will damage their livelihoods. The International Tobacco Growers’ Association erected a marquee outside the conference area when denied access to the conference itself. Such is the resentment of Articles 9 and 10 (and to a lesser extent Articles 17 and 18) that Zimbabwean farmers of all hues are uniting in protest.

Article 12: Education and Training


Article 13: Tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship

Two ways of drowning out the opposition’s voice: get more people to shout up for your side (art. 12) and legislate the enemy into silence (art. 13). Much emphasis on the global nature of the task in hand; targeting women, youths and other ‘disadvantaged’ populations; advertising bans; warning messages; plain packaging; the force of law and penalties.

Article 14: Cessation

Accepted in full by Conference. These guidelines for making us stop smoking were drafted by a working group that included the UK, which probably explains why the methods outlined are almost all depressingly familiar. Almost - but not quite. Nestled between the need to economise (‘use existing systems’) and a thumbs-up for quangos (‘political collaboration’) is a call for mandatory recording of smoking status on medical records.

Article 17: Viable alternatives to tobacco
Article 18: Protecting the environment

Areas considered much too big for a mere working party. Seventy countries (Parties) have been operating as a study group, researching economically sustainable alternatives to tobacco, since 2006. Their results were brought to COP-4 as a progress report. Government subsidies will be needed to make other crops an attractive alternative for tobacco farmers. No blame to the farmers - all blame to the manufacturers with their helpful start-up packages, efficient marketing schemes, above-average payments, community programmes, sponsorship and political collaboration.
The group will continue its studies, with a further report to COP-5 in 2012.

Article 19: Liability

Great disappointment that so many Parties are failing to sue the tobacco companies.

The Best Laid Plans...

The Framework Alliance is feeling the pinch.

All Parties are required to pay a biennial sub, known as a voluntary assessed contribution (or VAC), set at levels reflecting each country’s financial worth. VACs are the Framework Alliance’s ‘bread and butter’ revenue and fundamental to getting FWCT articles off the page and onto the streets, so the projected US$4, 938, 256 shortfall in VAC payments for the 20010/11 budget means difficult choices ahead.

Pet projects may have to be shelved.

Only 78 out of a total 160 parties were fully subscribed as of November 2010.

Forty-six countries have VACs set at US$113 per biennium, the lowest assessment made.

Top payer is Japan on a whopping US$1,762,925 pb. (Latest subs still unpaid as of October 31st.)

UK ranked 3rd highest contributor at US$752,280 pb. Ireland (US$50,441) is fully paid up.

European countries not only pay their own VAC, but also donate a further US$283,328 through the EU’s contribution (still outstanding as of Oct 31st).

Other Items of Note from Punta del Este

Plain packaging - Theme of lunchtime seminar; part-hosted by Australia who is showing us what Article 13 really means by adopting by this proposal within the next two years. The tobacco companies are complaining.

Meanwhile, back in Britain - Health Minister Andrew Lansley is said to be flexing his elbow to follow suit.

Gender, Women and the Tobacco Epidemic was the title of

Tuesday evening’s side show, a collaborative presentation by the WHO, the Framework Convention Alliance and the International Network of Women Against Tobacco.

Meanwhile, back in Britain - Smoking women are finding themselves, once again, at the sharp end of a public health campaign. Anti-smoking charity Quit is hoping to persuade them that giving up smoking won’t make them stressed or fat. Thankfully for Quit, the Scotsman, the Telegraph, the Sun and the Mail are all on hand with the barely less risible claim that smoking in pregnancy ‘breeds criminals’. Little wonder that most women prioritise giving up smoking 'above improving their career and having a happy relationship'.

A protocol on Illicit Tobacco is being created. Even the Framework Convention Alliance concede that high prices lead to more contraband and weaker tobacco control. However, strong tobacco control comes at a price - around US$3 million a year is the estimated budgetary requirement for this pet project.

Meanwhile, back in Ireland - A quarter of all cigarettes smoked are bought through the black market, depriving the legitimate trade of €692m, a figure that is expected to rise this year.

Smoking Cessation - Debbie Arnott of ASH UK writes of saving more than 180 million lives by 2050 (FCA COP-4 Bulletin 108), through the enactment of Article 14's evidence-based guidelines. (The UK was a 'key facilitator' in drafting the guidelines for Article 14.)

Meanwhile, back in Britain - Imperial Tobacco announce increased UK sales, bucking an international trend in the opposite direction; Cancer Research UK release figures showing that the number of British people attempting to give up smoking has fallen by half since the same period last year; and even though it enjoys one of the lowest smoking rates in Europe, Britain finds itself at the top of the EU's deaths by lung disease chart.

You can subscribe to the F2C newsletter here.

Blogger Tags: F2C Newsletter

Meet Dave Atherton

Dave has been a member of F2C for many a year now but this is the first time he has talked publicly. Dave is a family man and would not put his wife and children in danger and sees things as they are, he does not suffer fools gladly. Take it awayt Dave!

PS, sorry for the titles and music, I have a new toy in the editing department and have been playing with it.

Click To Play

New Voice, new times

For a long time now, yours truly has been voicing opinions on tne radio on a saturday, then a sunday night. Of course the ridiculous nature of the smoking ban and all the pain and misery it has caused is the subject.

Councillor Pat Carney has been invited onto the show as have representatives of ASH but, it seems, they do not wish to debate anything with me, Paul Ripley (the presenter) or anyone else for that matter! What a shame, for month after month we show up the absurdity of the ban.

I am handing over 'the reins' to my friend and colleague Dave Atherton as I think people are probably tiring of my voice and thoughts, therefore a fresh voice is needed and Dave is just the man for the job.

So folks, if you all listen in about 10.10pm tonight you will hear Dave's debut at:

http://www.manchesterradioonline.com/

Dave is very knowledgeable and very much into statistical figures that supposedly represent this, that and the other so it should be interesting.

Don't forget that Paul welcomes phone calls to the show, it all boosts ratings!

I'll be listening in-will you?

You can listen here or go straight to the radio website at: http://www.manchesterradioonline.com/

Finally, the Health Loonies get their way!

Long we have bemoaned the state of this country as the 'healthists' marched ever onward, invading our lives in every way possible. The smoking ban was, without doubt the pinnacle of their single minded assault on our freedoms-and they achieved that in 2007, much to the disgust of approximately 12 million smokers. I won't bother to go into the usual splattering of wordage to describe the effects of their dastardly work save to say WE WARNED YOU THEN!

In 2007 we warned you that the smoking ban was just the start. Alcohol would be next and 'fatties' (no offence intended of course) would be third on the list; and so it has proven to be.

With 6.500 venues already gone and many more yet to fall, it seems incredible that this new coalition (who have actually sworn to support the British Pub) have introduced more 'stress' for licensees under The Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill unveiled today. Let's have a little wander through some of the wordage:-

* New powers to stop premises selling alcohol late at night and punish those that persistently sell alcohol to children with fines of up to £20,000 Can't faul;t that one folks.

* Everyone will be given the chance to comment on individual licensing applications – not just those living close to the premises No0w just WHAT does 'everyone' mean? Living in Leicester am I now entitled me to object to someone's licensing hours in Glasgow or the Isle of Wight? Can I, as a private individual, object to any license application I feel like objecting to?

* Health bodies will become a responsible authority This is where it gets worrying, very worrying indeed! Primary Care Trusts and Health Boards will be listed as a responsible authority under the act, which means they can object to licences and call for a licence review. We4 are in dangerous territory here folks for this could mean that all hospitals have a hit list of pubs. A blacklist of pubs that provide most drunken fools or injured persons. Could be an innocent passer by who happens to trip outside "The Nags Head" but the unfortunate "Nags Head" will receive a black mark against its name.

Three strikes and you're out maybe? PCT's & Health Boards will weild the 'Sword of Damocles' if they so desire - a system wide open to blackmail, corruption and abuse by some!

* Charge for late-night licences to pay for extra policingWell, money had to come into it somewhere along the line didn't it? Hit the licensee yet again with extra costs, ensure that the pubs are all closed by 11pm at night again. Just think, home drinkers will be able to totter down to their local (if it's not been shut down already) and have the last pint of the night straight from the pump! Won't that excite licensees who have struggled to find customers all night. How much will this cost night clubs one asks? Is it possible that we will see a rapid increase in the closure rates of these younger generation venues? The smoking ban has got rid of 10% of them so far, perhaps financial encumberances will get rid of another 10%-20%-30% of them, who knows? Sure seems a good way to cull the hospitality outlets to me.

* Suspend licences if fees are not paid Just a natural follow on.

* Scrapping bureaucratic and unused alcohol disorder zones Something moderately sensible for if these zones are not being used by people because they now stop at home instead then they are a pointless exercise!

* A commitment to review the mandatory licensing code within 12 months of its introduction to assess its impact and any unnecessary burdens on business An absolute classic! Like the smoking ban then-all they'll do is listen to the Health Lobbyists (who will have found plenty to grumble about in 12 months) and then decide more restrictions are needed; like plain labelling on bottled beers or beer pumps must be hidden from the sight of children whilst out eating with their parents. It won't occur to these purile wankers that another 6,500 pubs, clubs, Bingo halls or night clubs have fallen by the wayside - oh no - the Healthists are on the march, zerom (minimising) costs to the NHS is their only concern. They sit at night dreaming more restrictions up as they quietly finish of yet another bottle of supermarket wine.

Ther link to all this 'gubbins' is here.

I will leave you to make your own minds up, mines already made. Freddom2choose stated 3 yeas ago that it was Smokers..1, Booze/Drinkers..2, & Obesity..3. Exactly the order any old government (it now seems) are taking. So much for 'call me Dave' & the secret puffer 'Cleggerons' promise to reform the previous gestapo's heavy handed legislation! They all 'piss in the same pot' it seems, which does not bode well for the rank & file of this country who basically want to finish a days work and pottle off down the pub for a fag and a pint but are finding such welcoming abodes harder and harder to come across as legislaters march ever onwards.

Anuerin Bevan instigated the National Health service on July 5th, 1948 so that all inhabitants of this once fair and just land could receive equal medical treatment irrespective of creed or class. Fifty years on and we find a tier system operating for those who can afford BUPA can have faster medical attention-from the same bloody doctors/surgeons at your local NHS hospital! Sixty years on and we see a divide growing as some loonies demand that smokers be refused treatment on the NHS as it 'costs' too much or 'it's self inflicted'. The mere fact that the smokers prop up the NHS to the tune of £11bn or £12bn per annum seems irrelevant to the health loonies for they are so blinkered. These are people so devoid of imagination that if tobacco was totally outlawed & smuggling eradicated, they would not understand why Income Tax had just risen by £30p to compensate for losses of revenue. Would they then ban AIDS sufferers from health care for that is 'self inflicted'? Would sports injuries, DIY injuries etc be banned from treatments for they are all 'self inflicted'?

For the Health Lobby to gain a foothold in the say so of our heritage, our British pubs, it is akin to starting a bush-fire - how far will the damage spread? The might of the health Lobby is so great in this day and age that no hospitality venue is safe from their scrutiny.

I shall be interested in phase3 because when you look around our hospitals you would be amazed to see just how many of the staff are obese or clini8cally obese. Now just what are the health Lobby going to do about 'regulating their own ship' I wonder? Three weeks to lose a stone in weight or you're out perhaps? Every single hospital will be very short staffed after 4 weeks.

Beginning to see just how far and how dangerous a road we are now on? Yet 'call me Dave' and the schoolboy 'Cleggeron' have done nothing to thwart the ominous advances of the health Lobby The countries Chief medical Officer might just as well now be Prime Minister!

Nudge Nudge…

…without the Wink Wink.



We did think, now didn’t we, that the Tories would sweep away 14 years of Labour social engineering? Now we are finding out differently. When it comes to our health and our lifestyle choices the Tories, and Cameron in particular, they have found new buzzwords…Nudge Economics. No, I’d never heard of it ether.

What is the big idea of Richard Thaler, the economist quoted by David Cameron and Barack Obama? It comes down to this: you're not as smart as you think. Humans, he believes, are less rational and more influenced by peer pressure and suggestion than governments and economists reckon.

You don’t have to go far in the UK to find Nudge Economics being put into practice as the coalition are going back on their word on plain packaging of tobacco products and are also going down the route of minimum pricing and tax rises on alcohol to Nudge us “get off your face on strong beer” plebs into drinking the low alcohol stuff. And no, I don’t drink beer stronger than 5%.
Plain packaging of cigarettes:

Tobacco companies could be forced to sell cigarettes in grey or brown plain packaging in an attempt to deter youngsters from taking up smoking.
Ministers are considering switching all brand packs to a standard colour so brightly coloured packages will not lure prospective smokers from a young age.
A spokeswoman from the Department of Health said colourful packs are widely accepted as the last form of marketing available for tobacco companies to recruit new smokers.

Minimum pricing called for by NICE:

A minimum price for a unit of alcohol should be introduced to help tackle the rise in problem drinking in Britain, says NICE.
One in 4 men and women are currently drinking dangerous amounts of alcohol that are causing, or have the potential to cause, physical and mental damage.
The number of alcohol-related deaths has more than doubled in the past 16 years, with over 8,000 people dying of conditions such as alcohol poisoning and liver cirrhosis every year.
NICE believes that introducing a minimum price for alcohol alongside other measures that make it harder to buy alcohol, like reducing the number of outlets selling alcohol in a given area or the days and hours that it can be purchased, will help to save thousands of lives each year.

Taxing higher strength beers:

The tax on high-strength beer will rise next year, as part of a drive to tackle alcohol abuse which will also see cuts to the duty levied on weak beer.
The new rates for beer containing more than 7.5 per cent alcohol and less than 2.8 per cent alcohol will be set out in the Budget on March 23.

More of a shove than a nudge I'd say.

On Radio4’s The Moral Maze last Wednesday Christopher Snowdon, author of Velvet Glove, Iron Fist and The Spirit Level Delusion, talked about plain packaging as a guest on the show. The show also had columnist James Delingpole amongst others who enlightened the listener with their thoughts on Nudge Economics and is well worth a listen in it’s entirety. Here is a recording of The Moral Maze from Wednesday the 24th of November 2010.


As an aside there is an interesting debate taking place between Christopher Snowdon, Rich White, author of Smoke Screens: The Truth About Tobacco and Frank Davis, blogger extraordinaire.

The debate is called CATCH and the question for debate is “does active smoking cause lung cancer?” The link to Frank’s blog is CATCH 3 but you can scroll down to CATCH 1.

Blogger Tags: Plain Packaging, Nudge Economics, Nanny Statism, Christopher Snowdon

The Painters Arms, Drighlington, Bradford.

A post by Phil Johnson, Chairman, Freedom2Choose.

The once proud home of Ray & Jill McHale who successfully ran this lovely little pub for 5 happy years, followed by 3 years of smoke ban misery-which finally forced them out of business.



Ray & Jill refused to accept that the smoking ban was right for it intervened in their own business, forced them to lose business and forced confrontations with the local council EHO’s.

One Saturday Ray informed them (EHO’s) that he told the locals that smoking was illegal within the confines of the pub but refused to go any further than that as neither he nor his wife could bear to watch the elderly & infirm struggle outside in the cold, wet weather to enjoy that which is perfectly legal-a cigarette!

However after 2 years of trying to prosecute the McHale’s and failing to be able to do so, the council finally built a case against them for smoking in their own pub! Even (and just how low can you get) their own customer/s reported them for doing such, which I find absolutely disgusting - but such is the sewer mentality of some anti smokers. Congratulations to them for they have not only ensured the financial boot being well and truly stuck in they have lost a damned fine watering hole!

Enterprise Inns finally ‘pulled the plug’ on the pub as being non-viable, so Ray & Jill were forced to leave their job, their life and their home behind and walk away virtually penniless-after 8 years of hard work.
To add to their burden Ray appeared in court a few days ago and came out with financial penalties of just over £5,000-no job, no prospects & no hope! Can you see the similarity between Ray McHale & Nick Hogan beginning to appear? The council claimed a ridiculous amount in costs-£4,540 immediately awarded. They are supposed to pay at £x per month but now being jobless & homeless, this looks a tall order. Nick Hogan could not pay because all he ‘earned’ each week was ‘job-seekers’ allowance-a state benefit!

These people have fought this law with all they have got and will continue to fight it until choice & fairness wins the day but they need our help, your help as Nick Hogan did. We do not need another landlord imprisoned because he no longer has the means to pay fines/penalties imposed upon him by the very system that took his means of earnings away from him. We need to raise half as much as we did for Nick Hogan earlier this year and , despite Christmas being just around the corner, please think of what sort of Christmas this poor couple are going to endure thanks to their local council being hell bent on revenge. Smokers Justice already has the facility for a regular small monthly donation to help fight injustices, as we did on behalf of our elderly pensioner v Sandwell Council – they soon backed down when faced with the absurdity of the situation!


Smokers Justice has already set up a PayPal account for your kind donations. Nick had to suffer the ignominy of imprisonment before blogosphere got to work to free him-please do not let this happen to Ray & Jill McHale. They face a bleak enough yuletide as it is but with our help we can make it at least enjoyable.

Just leave me alone! Another one bites the dust.

Justice, yeah right!

I pine for this blog when I have some respite from my carer duties, so whenever I can I read those blogs I have a fondness for, and any news items that pertains to the smoking ban whenever I can. Today is such an occasion where I play catch-up. As usual the news was not good and the first smack in the face, news wise, was the humiliation of my friends, husband and wife landlords, the McHales who ran the Painters Arms in Drighlington, Yorkshire. I wrote recently here that they were giving up their beloved pub because of many factors, of which the smoking ban played a big big part.

In the car park of the Painters Arms. Next to Ray is Godfrey Bloom MEP and next to Jill is Nick Hogan, my friend who has suffered at the hands of the smoking Nazis mentality.

I have good memories of my visits to the Painters, which took me and Mrs Yin an hour and a half's journey by train, not counting the bus ride to the train and from the train at the other end, for which you can add on another hour, but it was well worth it to listen to my friends and guest speakers, speakers like Godfrey Bloom MEP (UKIP,) Nick Hogan, who later became spokesperson for UKIP on the hospitality trade, and Nick’s friend and mentor, Hamish Howitt, to name but a few.

Our ‘local’ meetings were an eye opener and our hosts where at odds with their Pubco bosses (they had the sign above, about Freedom of Choice and smoking, hanging on their frontage before we made it a meeting place and they where “asked” to take it down.)

When we made our meeting place at the Painters we were struck by the fact that we could smoke and chat without fear but we were well aware that we would be the least persons to pay the price of that dissent towards the smoking ban experiment, we were well aware that the publican would bear the brunt of this dissent and we went to some ridiculous attempts to not reveal the location nor the publicans involved while chatting on the F2C forum.

The Painters was visibly split into two sections and the landlords, Ray & Jill, designated them to smoking and non smoking sections, and you could not physically smell smoke coming from one section to the other, even when us “unrepentant smokers” descended upon their premises. It’s not impossible of course (and I’m not even mentioning air extraction, which most pubs have, if not all )but you would need to have the nose of a sniffer dog at Heathrow airport, looking for illicit drugs stuck up your arse, to find any tobacco smoke or tobacco substances in the air that might, just might, flow your anti smoking way.


As for the “dangers” of second, third hand and, when they find a way to tout it, fourth hand smoke, well, I will treat it with the contempt it deserves!

Jill & Ray ran an orderly pub, they knew there customers well and how to best serve (handle) them, they separated the wheat from the chaff, the smoker from the non smoker, the belligerent from the pacifist and the enquirer from the shit stirrer! In short they ran a pub that I want to see around my area, not a plastic shell of a non human pub!!!

But genuine people like Jill and Ray must be stamped out with the most sternest of Jackboots and nothing is forgotten in the smoker wars:

A landlord and landlady were today counting the cost of letting customers smoke at their West Yorkshire pub.
Ray and Gillian McHale were each fined £350 and ordered to pay a combined £4,540 in costs after pleading guilty at Leeds Magistrates' Court to repeated breaches of the law on lighting up in enclosed public places.

The offences occurred while the couple were running the Painters Arms on Bradford Road in Drighlington.

In this country that I was born into, no matter that I am Scottish, I thought of it as an upholder of democracy, the cradle of truth and the common man? I am just as shocked as you, dear readers, to find out that this is not so. I used to be anti business in my younger days when I thought that business was against the common man until I met the likes of Jill and Ray, hard working people that were dealt a cruel hand due to vested interests.

You see I equated hard work with physical graft, and that’s not to say that running a pub is an easy option to physical graft, as any landlord/lady will testify.

One of my friends who was at every meeting we held was Judith Morris, a business women of note who founded York Tutors, has got up a fund to pay off Jill and Ray’s fines. Judith, a cheque is on it’s way to you at 33 Moorland Road, York YO10 4HF.

Meanwhile the hatred of smokers goes on as the anti smoker gets more and more puerile publicity without question and their hatred knows no bounds:

"I will successfully kill someone who
smokes. I encourage any non-smokers who are reading this to go out and kick the shit out of smokers.” (Pat Nurse’s blog.)

Yeah, say that to my face you mother******!

As ever, Dick Puddlecote sees through the flim flam of tobacco control and the (anti smokers) fruitless attempts to denormalise the smoker and get shitheads, like the MOFU above, to further denigrate people who indulge in a legal pastime.

I will not be made to feel guilty for my smoking, end of! Just leave me alone!

 

You just know you MUST fight!

DUTCH REFLECTIONS

Dutch courage. Wiel Maessen

Dutch Reflections

Again I cannot heap enough praise on the Dutch for attacking their smoking ban with a zeal and gusto that puts us Brits to shame. It has shown us Brits to be complete namby-pamby’s when faced with adversity of such magnitude!

Wiel Maessen & 250 cohorts clubbed together to the tune of 250 euro’s apiece to form a fighting fund-a fighting fund to take their own government on!

Similarly our near 60,000 pubs did ....err, nothing, nothing at all. Weil spoke for nearly 2,000 small bar owners who steadfastly left their ashtrays on their tables and risked financial penalties.

Unlike the Dutch our licensees bent over backwards to comply with the new law, due, to a great extent, to the dire financial penalties handed out by the courts to those who fancied taking the ban on! It was obvious from the onset that our Judiciary had bent to the will of the Health Lobby as guilty licensees were slapped with ridiculous fines and costs to stamp out recalcitrance from other would be flouters. It was obvious that the judiciary had unwittingly found a new cash cow to supplement the system. Indeed, Liverpool were the first major city to gleefully announce that they had relieved naughty smokers of more than £100,000 in smoke entrapment offences. Now who in their right mind could be gleeful about such a situation that was hurting people’s pockets and the welfare of our country. Tales of great admiration/ respect and pleasure with the ban have been reported not only in the press but in parliament to boot!

It was also obvious very early on that the immense financial power of the Health Lobby (fully backed by Big Pharma et al) came into play with incessant block advertising on TV, Radio and all readable media; ie, the press. I don’t think we have seen so much propaganda on any subject since Hitler, as we’ve seen for the smoke ban! We have certainly never seen such an all-out attempt of nationwide brainwashing!

Prosecutions took a strange turn as well, for people who didn’t even smoke ignitable cigarettes were prosecuted. Now you may well ask how this could possibly be for we are reputed to have the fairest legal system in the world. Alas, no more it would seem. With very few exceptions, any accused person hauled before the court’s has suffered badly at the hands of the now biased judiciary. Councils, now having the power to claim their ‘expenses’ suddenly seem to have encompassed the costliest legal teams in the country-for the simplest of cases!

Another complete difference between our two countries is the pub/bar ‘set up’ for over in Holland many small bars are single person businesses. Yes, they may be family run enterprises but there is only need for one person to be on duty at any one time whereas here we have a completely different culture.

Even pre-ban there were very few actual pubs that could be classed as ‘one-man-bands’ therefore the Dutch approach would never work here. However, were every pub allowed to have 753q ft of smoker space, if they wanted such, I am totally convinced a sudden upsurge in pub finances would occur!

The point here though is that we still have/had enough small ‘freehouses’ to get together and make a serious impact for reform. But yet again the good old British spirit was lacking as 99.99% simply sat back and tried to feather their own nest sufficiently to survive.

Tenanted pubs and managed pubs were of a totally different faction altogether! Even if the licensees did want to fight this unjust law they couldn’t (publicly) because their owners/bosses had already committed to the smoke free proposals!(Which totally restricts their own freedom of choice). In other words for fear of losing a few pubs the multi’s have lost more than they imagined! The brilliant strategy used, by a warped government of little truth, totally hoodwinked businessmen of many years standing. The ridiculous promise of millions of new drinkers was swallowed hook, line & sinker by ever greedy pubco bosses. What was it that convinced them that, suddenly, non drinking, non smokers were going to immediately start drinking and replenish the regular faces at the bars? Did the lifelong non drinker suddenly, at the government’s whim, become a regular drinker! Did Punch & Enterprise etc really think that share prices would rise with less drinkers drinking? Were they really that stupid as to ignore the requirements of 68% of their regular core business? Do they seriously think that their beloved ‘tied system’ can exist in a world that has seen riches reduced to breadlines, pounds to pennies &regular earnings to pittances? They have cut their own throats simply by failing to think of their best customers first.

 Wiel Maessen

Where can this lead, who knows? We are already faced with 6,500 closures; more are imminent. Do we stay as we are and watch even more of our heritage die before us or do we unite and make a stand against that which is wrong? Not only is this law wrong for it treads all over human rights, civil liberties their business to the best of their ability! This law is also wrong insomuch that we now know the whole sorry bagful is the result of lies, manipulated statistics, fabrications & junk science-most of it tailored by ASH!

They say that the British people will only get off their backsides and fight when they are hungry-well they must be getting pretty hungry by now!

Freedom2choose have always supported unity as have our allies Justice for Licensees.

Together we are growing stronger by the day but we need all smaller groups to unite with us. We must show unanimity in strength for the time has come for those who care to fight back and reclaim our rights

The Dutch have shown the way forward, let us, at last, follow in their footsteps!

Cry Freedom!

In memory of Gill and Ray, former landlords of the Painters Arms, Drighlington near Leeds who have given up the fight to stay afloat after the imposition of the smoking ban here in the UK.

So you want to be Prime Minister Nick Clegg? Put that fag out!

Nick Clegg wishes for a stash of cigarettes on his desert island. The below recording is 45 minutes long and about 10 to 15 minutes in there is a short gap where I foolishly muted the sound as I was about to go for a preverbial leak...

The recording is a facinating insight into the Lib Dem political mind.

Oh Nick, you'll never get the top job if you smoke, will you.



                                                                                                   

                                       
                    Click To Play                   

You can read more about Nick Clegg and his 'smoking gaff' over at Chris Snodown's place.   

Angry? Don’t make me angry, you won’t like me when I’m angry!

Old woman pleading for her life [to the Nazis] but to no avail.

You scrimp and save for your old age, you do without yourself to make sure your children have everything you did not and pass on information that you have stored all your life and impart that information to your children in the hope that they will be better people when they attain adulthood.

Some of us were born in the fifties and knew nothing of what happened just a few short years before. And as we grew up we relied on our elders to educate us with truths, not lies or homilies, just truth as it unfolded to our parents just a few short year before we were born.

We were taught at school that we learn by history and to make sure it never repeats itself. But then that was yesteryear and time dims the memory for some, if not most people.

Is history repeating itself?

CALGARY — Friends and family of an 88-year-old Calgary woman say the lifelong smoker is "ashamed and embarrassed" after she was told to find another place to live because her residence has gone smoke-free.

The church (and its priests) is, so historians tell us, a sanctuary, a place where you will not be persecuted and kept away from those that would persecute you…

Philipina Schergevitch, who has smoked for 73 years, has been living at the Francis Klein Centre for a decade.

The centre is run by the Bishop O'Byrne Housing for Seniors Association, which banned smoking in July.

I guess your persecutors come in sheep's clothing. And the old lady’s daughter is angry, very angry:

Schergevitch's daughter, Liz Daniels, said her mother is devastated over the news she has to find a new home by the end of this month as her lease isn't being renewed.

Daniels said her mother is so stressed out, she hasn't yet told her she'll be forced to move.
"Who expects to be evicted at age 88?" Daniels asked.

The association provides affordable housing for people who are functionally independent.

Exactly Liz, I live hundreds of miles away from my mother (a moderate smoker,) in Soviet Scotland, who have a history of persecuting smokers, safe in the knowledge that she is safe and well with a daughter nearby in my absence to look after her wellbeing if my mother needs help, but she does not, she also is an independent pensioner.

How long will her wellbeing last if such a draconian measure against smokers is implemented there? Oh it couldn’t happen here in the UK, could it?

And as ever these Nazi types are NEVER repentant.

Myrt Butler, the association's chief administrative officer, wrote in an email that because of provincial privacy laws, the association couldn't comment on tenants. (ed: It’s not our fault, we are only obeying orders! now where have I heard that before?)

Butler said the association's board of directors voted five years ago to implement a no-smoking policy in all 519 of its Calgary units.

In 2009, residents were given a one-year notice there would be a ban on smoking in suites, effective July 31, 2010, said Butler.

She said short-term leases were signed with smoking tenants so they could either adjust or find alternative housing.

Tenants are allowed to smoke in designated exterior areas, Butler said.

A couple of points here I would like clarifying, or am I missing something?

Butler said the association's board of directors voted five years ago to implement a no-smoking policy in all 519 of its Calgary units.

In 2009, residents were given a one-year notice there would be a ban on smoking in suites, effective July 31, 2010

The old lady in question has been living there since the year 2000, ten years ago, so why does this apply to her?

And

Tenants are allowed to smoke in designated exterior areas, Butler said.

Remind me again the temperatures in Canada in the depths of winter? Is it also against Canadian law to smoke in what is effectively your own home?

For non smoking pigs only! 

Daniels said her mother has been smoking since she was 15 and has tried to quit, but at age 88, it's hard. She's been smoking in her suite since she moved there in 2000.

"I understand no one likes smoking, but are these people lepers?" said Daniels. "It's not fair. These people have contributed all their lives and now they're treated like this."

You said Liz that “no one likes smoking” but I beg to differ, one quarter of the UK population smoke, most of them like smoking and I will assume that Canada has a similar ratio of smokers to non smokers. But the point is that the Board of Directors running your mothers life home are ANTI SMOKERS and will use draconian Nazi like tactics to make sure she conforms or she WILL suffer the consequences. Anti smokers are in a tiny minority but unfortunately they have the ear of the powerful and have hearts of steel, their cruelty knows no bounds.

Neighbours Joan Poulin and Carol James have appealed to the association to make an exception to the no-smoking policy, because Schergevitch moved into the residence before the ban was imposed.

James, who has lived at the centre for a year, said Schergevitch will have trouble finding a home.

"There's no place for people to go," said James, 66. "These are independent apartments, subsidized for low-income seniors and they have to find something like it, but there's very little out there."

Poulin, 73, has lived at the centre for 10 years. She said Schergevitch is a much-loved friend, and if she leaves, it'll be like losing a family member.

Joan and Carol, you are trying to appeal to hard hearted individuals that are ruled by hatred and have a twisted love of cruelty. They will not listen, they need to be exterminated (metaphorically) until their existence is no more. We have tried appealing to their humanity but they have none. Anti smokers are steeped in the lies and misdirections told by 'esteemed' anti smoking 'scientists', if they didn’t make up the lies themselves, and will not bend one iota and we that fight these lowlifes must also not bend one iota. When these lowlifes see any weakness in us they go for the kill, and take no prisoners.

Don’t forget that the all pervasive, but minute, anti smoker started off by pleading sheepishly for  non smoking sections in public places just a few short year ago and now they smell blood. Now where are we? Oh yes…

By law there is no smoking in pubs and clubs or bingo halls. there is no smoking in some parks and children's playgrounds. aeroplanes, trains and now they want a ban on smoking in automobiles. Hey, I’m sure you can add some more areas were you are persecuted for your choice of relaxation. And don't forget they are calling for a smoking ban in your own home...They won't let up, and nor should we.

Don’t ever think the anti smoker is finished until they have reached their goal. They are never finished until they get to the final solution. And that day is not to far off…unless we fight back, it will be bloody but we MUST fight back. The outlook doesn’t bear thinking about if we don’t.

You can find out more about a campaign for Philipina at Freedom2Choose’s (Scotland), or The Smoking Doctor’s blogs.

---------------------------

Some commentators may ask “why is he blogging after he said he wouldn’t?” Well I did say in that post that I should “never say never again” and, apart from copying and pasting others words, I have never had the time to research or sit at my comp for any length of time because of my circumstances which keeps me away from my beloved internet and computer. But this story hit me with a “G” ten force.

You see I live in a high rise block where, many years ago, I/we were asked if it was ok to go ‘warden controlled.’ I/we agreed. Now there seems to be a certain degree of control seeping in. Every six months or so the warden comes to every flat (there is ninety of them) and has a ‘form’ to fill in from his paymasters, the council. Oh it is dressed up with concern. It asks if we have any special needs and it will cater for them, which, I must say it does, but alarm bells started ringing when one of the questions was “do you or your partner smoke?” You see it’s health and safety and fires and all??? Yeah right. There’s never been a fire in these flats since they were built in 1968!

So I can see what is happening to Philipina Schergevitch will eventually happen to us here at BigYin towers.

Update: This is the lady concerned with the post above.

You can learn more at Stand Fast's place.

Blogger Tags: Anti smoking Nazism, 88 year old woman to be eviced because she's a smoker, Freedom2Choose Scotland, Rich White, Canada and anti smoking

Play it again Sam

By Guest writer, John Watson.

This short clip from the film Casablanca has attained over the years an iconic status, it stands in tribute to a very small minority of exceptionally brave  French men and women  many of whom perished or suffered severe treatment at the hands of what is considered to be one of the most vicious occupations by a foreign power in history.


Today a similar war is taking place, there are no armies, no occupational forces, there are not yet any mysterious camps, people have not yet disappeared from our streets, yet the perpetrators of this war are every bit as evil, every bit as capable of the style of oppression that the men in black, or those who wore the long black leather  coats were perpetrating when Casablanca was made.

As it was then, it is now that a small resolute band of people are fighting for the cause of freedom, they are not fighting against an army, but the same ideology that the Marquis, those mostly amateur freedom loving individuals who so selflessly put their country and their countrymen above all else fought, this ideology that permit’s a minority to be victimised, that is being wielded by some politicians, by some charities and even some from that bastion of caring for ones fellow man, the medical profession just as it was in the days that Casablanca portrayed.

The homage that Hollywood paid to  the French Resistance in those far off dark days finds renewed purpose, it pays as much homage to those who distribute leaflets, go online to protest at the loss of our heritage, for every pub that dies a little of our heritage dies with it, with some of those cast onto benefits goes partners and children which defeats the mantra of its “for the children”  every time the ersatz science is trotted out in defence of these ideological monsters it helps destroy the credibility of genuine scientists, it destroys faith in our doctors some  of whom have so little compassion for their patients that they even imply that a small minority of parents actively harm their offspring  and that is after a coroner states that there is no explainable cause of death  their cause is so weak that they have to resort to kicking grieving parents who have just lost their child!

I hope that you will watch this clip, that those who smoke those who enjoy food, or alcohol take heart for the spirit portrayed by the Marquis here lives on in those fighting for freedom no matter what the cause, for those in the anti-smoking lobby, to those who believe they can emulate the apparent victory of the Health Nazis I say take note, the spirit of the Marquis was never broken, no amount of brutality physical or mental defeated them, neither will it defeat true believers in freedom, history bears this this out, today you have your ban, today your quasi National Socialism rules, but what of tomorrow, the next day or the days, months or years to follow? 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KL76edqCKc&feature=related