The time has come, the walrus said, to speak of many things…except the smoking ban!

Mr Osborne said he had put business - "the job creators of Britain" - centre stage of his policies as he launched the "Red Tape Challenge", the Government's latest initiative to encourage more private sector activity.

The coagulation government have opened another website (yawn) for the great unwashed, and business, to vent their spleen on the masses of red tape the Labour lot hammered everyone over the head with during their long, long stab at running the country into the ground.

More than 21,000 regulations have been identified and hundreds will be published over the coming months on an industry by industry basis. The first 130 regulation on the block cover the retail trades, with hospitality industry (My emphasis) and food and drink regulations next in line.

Gorgeous George 

But, of course, for most of the red tape regulations to be amputated before they turn gangrenous, the government, on our behalf, have to face the Mecca that is called the EU with puppy dog eyes before running away with their tail between their legs:

…the Prime Minister has made clear he expects the onus to be on deregulation rather than maintaining the status quo, although European laws and tax red tape are exempt from the exercise.

This is how much I care about smokers!

And to back up gorgeous George in a double hammy the beleaguered businessman had to listen to Vince Cable  kiss ass while holding the EU dagger behind his back:

Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, followed Mr Osborne on to the Church House stage to assure the business audience he was not wasting their time. "We will presume that you are right; we will assume that the regulations should go," he said. "Unless ministers can robustly defend the need to keep an unpopular regulation, departments will get rid of it. We want to be the first government in history to leave office having reduced the overall burden of regulation, not increased it."

Our Vince earlier met a furniture retailer and after listening to the founders tale of woe agreed something should be done but then got a fit of the vapours as he cow towed to his audience of businessmen. And if there was any doubt in my mind that only the MSM (in collusion with fake charities for their headliners)  can change laws and red tape by proxy then Cable’s next paragraph leapt out from my computer screen:

"I thought it sounds very sensible. Then I thought about the headlines: 'Fire in house kills children; minister tries to reduce safety standards'. This is an area where we have to tread carefully."  (My emphasis.)

So what of the infamous smoking ban experiment I hear you cry. Well one business man in the retail industry said, with a straight face, one presumes:

Owen Dunn posted a comment calling for Section 6 of the Health Act 2006 to be reformed.
"

Mandatory 'No Smoking' signs on buildings are no longer necessary," he wrote. "If there was ever an argument for these signs, it was that the smoking ban was new and people needed to know about it, but the ban has bedded in now. It's a pointless cost on the public sector and businesses alike."

The mind bloody boggles.

You can go to the red tape website here and see the article that I’ve written about here.

Technorati Tags: Bonfire of UK red tape,George Osborne,Vince Cable,Smoking ban,they couldn't give a shit about you.