Smokers, pigs and criminals

We've known this for a while.

Outside smoking shelters in the UK are forbidden by law to be more than 50 percent enclosed. As the campaigning group Freedom2Choose has pointed out: a farmer who keeps pigs is obliged by law to provide them with 95 percent shelter. So the 12 million or more tax-paying British citizens who smoke are officially, legally, worse than pigs.

But as the Daily Star reiterates today, smokers are now, officially, not only regarded lower on the social scale than four-legged porcines by our government, but also convicted criminals*.

A PUB landlord who was jailed for defying the smoking ban says he was allowed to light up in his cell.

Nick Hogan, 43, claims he was even given tobacco, cigarette papers and matches by prison officers.

Yes, The Star are a bit late on parade, but as highly-respected blogger Tim Worstall points out, it's another reminder of the shocking state of Britain today.

Interesting country really. You can smoke in a jail cell but not in a pub.

Heck, you can smoke in the jail cell to which you are sentenced for allowing people to smoke in a pub.

There’s just some nagging little voice at the back of my head insisting that this isn’t quite right, you know?

It's not right, it's not equitable, and it's downright insulting to the 10 million plus smokers in a country which purports to be 'free'.

* Nick Hogan can't be described as such, of course.

Andrew Nielson, of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said jailing Nick was the wrong option.

If he had served the full six months, it would have cost taxpayers £20,000 – double the money he paid to the court.

Way to run a country.

If this government isn't the very worst in British history, I'd be amazed to learn of a previous administration which was more inept.