Time to put the garbage out

You may remember Margaret Moran, Labour MP for Luton South? She has featured a couple of times previously on this blog.

As well being one of the most egregious abusers of the MP expenses system - arguably the worst, in fact - she is also a dictatorial, anti-smoking moron, with no time for democratic input from her constituents. As Luton working mens' club owner, Sean Spillane, found out last year when he wrote to the local newspaper about Moran's abandonment of the smoking ban exemption for private members' clubs.

Dear Sean Spillane,

I refer to your most recent letter regarding the smoking ban. The contents are noted, however I refer you to my previous reply on this subject, particularly the evidenced health benefits of the ban.

As MPs we are elected to weigh in the balance the greater good for our constituents, and it is for this reason that I wholly support the current policy. No amount of public bullying of the sort you indulge in will change my position.

I also understand that the constitution for working men's clubs mandates that they are not party political. I therefore understand that your public statements have been referred to the relevant governing bodies.

Yours sincerely,

Margaret Moran MP
Labour MP for Luton South

Disagreeing with your MP's desecration of a manifesto commitment is apparently public bullying, according to hideous trougher Moran. Reason enough, even, to engage in a bit of spiteful mud-slinging against someone exercising their democratic right to freedom of speech.

I wonder, then, what she will make of this campaign from the Luton & Dunstable Express who, it would seem, have had enough of their embarrassingly disgraceful MP.


I reckon there are quite a few Luton bar and club owners raising a glass or two in celebration tonight.

Yep, it's still missing

As I mentioned here, there is a supposedly miraculous Labour achievement which is missing from Gordon Brown's list of his government's brilliant highlights. D'you reckon he might be a bit afraid it will come back and bite his depressed arse?

Can you guess which "single biggest improvement in public health for a generation" was not mentioned?

Clue: It's not the cuddly toy.



H/T GOT

It's too late now!

Oh dear. It looks like Labour have noticed that they are pissing us all off.

The instruction to start clearing-out measures — dated August 28 — sets Lord Mandelson on a collision course with Harriet Harman and the unions, who are championing many of the new laws that he most wants to shelve.

In the letter, sent to other members of a Cabinet sub-committee, Lord Mandelson wrote: “I support the approach that where measures appear without a planned implementation date — and on the assumption they are not planned for the near future — we commit to not imposing these measures until after April 2011.”

A delay to the much-vaunted statutory crackdown on pubs and clubs will also be an embarrassment for Gordon Brown, who promised to bring in the code just five months ago.

“We are going to bring in a new mandatory code on the sale of alcohol,” he said on May 12. The code would “tackle binge drinking, targeting the kind of promotions like ‘drink all you can for a fiver’ which can turn some town centres into no-go areas.”

Unelected Lord Mandelson, it would seem, in the face of inevitable defeat at the next election, is trying to head off the prospect of Labour being remembered as the government which not only imposed a ludicrous smoking ban, but also banned 'Happy Hour'.

The party of misery would have a certain attraction to opposition parties, would it not?

Lord Mandelson has already succeeded in delaying the implementation of a ban on cigarette displays: supermarkets will not be forced to put tobacco products under the counter until 2011.

For delaying, read consigning to history, as the Tories (who will undoubtedly be in power by then) are already committed to killing the idea stone dead. That's if the lies and outrageous misleading of parliament don't result in the silly addition to the Health Bill being thrown out before that.

Have Labour finally realised that kicking the nation's working class in the nuts is not the way to gain approval amongst their core vote?

A couple of years too late, Mandy. A handbrake on illiberal crap is not enough. Try looking for reverse gear at full revs and you may be more successful.

Iain Dale the wallflower

The country's top blogger, Iain Dale, has just discovered a large downside of the smoking ban for non-smokers.

Dale is ambivalent to the smoking ban debate - he neither agrees nor disagrees - but errs occasionally on the side of freedom of choice, so his discovery of state-enforced bad manners isn't cause for gleeful gloating.

UPDATE: As Iain himself points out in the comments, he more than errs on the side of freedom of choice, he is an opponent of the ban. Very happy to put that straight. Now onto the issue raised by his tweet.

However, it does bring up a salient point about the authoritarian nature of the ban. That of the personal predilections of the individual being steam-rollered by government who profess to 'know better'.

As a Conservative, Dale will be very familiar with the toast to 'The Queen' at sumptuous feasts and fund-raisers. This was a respectful nod to the monarch, always once everyone had finished eating, and mostly before the after-dinner speaker.

Dining guests who wished to finish off their evening with a cigar and an entertaining orator would strictly obey the rule of 'no smoking before The Queen'.

Smokers can understand that many non-smokers would find it irritating should someone light up while they were eating, but 'The Queen' was a threshold that none would cross in respect for that very reason. The result was an atmosphere of good manners and tolerance of the wishes of others.

While the modern pack 'em in and turf 'em out, eat whenever you like, approach by restaurants doesn't lend itself to such niceties, there are other restaurants which apply rigid seating times, to which such an arrangement would be perfectly feasible. Unfortunately, Labour have decided that no owner of any establishment should be permitted such a choice.

The hard-line authoritarian nature of the ban is even more stark in pubs where, prior to the 2005 general election, they had a choice, smoking or food. Many would have chosen to keep their smoking customers and dispensed with the deep fat fryer. They were denied that choice entirely undemocratically by a government which reneged on its manifesto commitment in outrageous fashion.

And as for 'cigar bars', such as this fine one in Belgravia, the legislation is even more oppressive and disgraceful. The clue to the air-wavers and fake-coughers is in the description of the premises. No like? No enter.

Dale may well have preferred that his guests continue the conversation, with his permission, at the table (he may not have, but he doesn't have a say anymore). The owner may well have no objections either, or any of the other customers, yet all that is swept away by the opinion of Labour's nanny front bench. They know better, you see.

The same scenario is played out in every pub, up and down the country, on every night of the week. It is always rude for friends to leave a conversation to go outside for a cigarette/pipe/cigar, but what other choice is there?

None, because Labour have taken it away whether the non-smokers in attendance, or the owner of the property, care or not.

The only rude ones here are those who thought the Health Act 2006 was a good idea.

How Labour in parliament work: Gillian Merron

This exchange in Westminster exhibits both the best and the worst of our elected representatives.

In answer to a friendly question by Ann Coffey (Labour, Stockport), the Minister of State, Gillian Merron (Labour, Lincoln) exhibits some incredible arrogance to a two-pronged spearing from more knowledgeable MPs.

Note the difference in tone, and attitude.

In response to Coffey.

My hon. Friend is a great champion for quitting smoking. I am delighted ... and I congratulate her ...

Compare and contrast the reply to Philip Davies (Conservative, Shipley), who cares about ALL his constituents (as he has shown before), not just some.

Davies: There is nothing to suggest that the ban on tobacco displays will reduce the number of young people taking up smoking; that ban is merely another triumph for the nanny state and for this Government, who are obsessed with headline-grabbing but pointless initiatives. Will the Minister reconsider this decision, given the negative impact that it will have on small shops, which are already struggling through the recession?

Merron: The simple answer is no, and the reason why is that removing tobacco displays is not going to close shops, no matter how much the hon. Gentleman and others in the House spread myths.

Myths? Such as a documented 23 shops closing every week in Ontario, and 12 in Quebec, due to the same unnecessary measure over the Atlantic, for example?

Then, fresh from the launch of amendthesmokingban.com, David Clelland, a fellow Labour MP, challenged her loose grasp of reality too.

Clelland: But if the display of tobacco products encourages young people to take up smoking, what influence do the crowds of people whom we see on the streets outside pubs and clubs have on young people? Would it not be better for these smokers to be hidden away—inside the building in a controlled environment, rather than on the streets, where children can see them?

He's got a point, you know.

Merron can't see it though. Unfortunately, she had her fingers in her ears and was singing la-la-la at the time.

Merron: My hon. Friend is, as always, very inventive in making his point.

Apparently, logic and common sense is now classed as 'inventive' by New Labour.

Could this be why no fucker in their right mind votes for them anymore? Just a thought.

That universally welcomed smoking ban again

Gamblers don't seem to think it's that great, either.

Smoking Ban Nearing An End? UKIP's General Election Odds Slashed

UKIP could gain a massive boost from smokers in the next General Election as they are the only main political party to have stated in their manifesto that they intend to repeal the highly Unpopular Smoking Ban which has closed thousands of pubs, clubs and bingo halls throughout the UK.

William Hill have opened a book on whether Labour or UKIP (UK Independence Party) win most seats at the Euro Elections and make UKIP 5/4 (2.25) favourites with Labour 11/8 (2.37) and a tie 11/4 (3.75), indicating further that smokers and tolerant non-smokers have been spreading the word about UKIP's policy.

It has long been argued that pubs, clubs, etc. should have the right to determine their own smoking policy. Independent evidence and statistics indicate that smoking bans INCREASE, rather than decrease, the number of smokers - the likely reason being that the general public do not appreciate being told what to do by a nanny-state Government.

To date, neither The Conservative or Liberal Democrat parties have announced any planned changes to the smoking ban.

Looks like the Tories and the Lib Dems are backing the wrong horse. 12 million smokers are a hell of a lot of voters to mess with.

Perhaps one or other of the parties might one day join the bookies in slashing the odds on a return to common sense and a repeal of the smoking ban, but then just as one will never meet a poor bookie, you'll also find it difficult to find a strapped politician recently.

The difference is that bookies deal in hard facts, they have to in order to turn a profit, whilst politicians (especially Labour) lie.

Still, the bookies have insured themselves against disaster, they are generally very astute at such practices. Politicians are a different matter entirely, it will take being voted into oblivion before they notice that they have been listening to bullshit and lies from the healthist minority.

They'll wake up one day, but meanwhile let's just revel in the fact that we have one less corrupt shit to deal with.

She is already paid between £45,000 and £50,000 a year as a consultant to the Boots chain of pharmacies, according to the House of Commons Register of Members' Interests.

She also pockets between £55,000 and £60,000 as an adviser to Cinven, which paid £1.4billion for Bupa's UK hospitals and runs 25 private care facilities in Britain.

Thanks for the smoking ban Ms Hewitt, I hope one day that the people you have put on the dole queue in order to increase your payout from your pharma paymasters, come to your house and burgle everything they can lay their hands on.

It would help tackle 'health inequalities', don't you think?

We can but hope

From Let Fly The Pigs Of War, good news regarding the Right Horrendous Member for Luton South.

Tom Bradby from ITN asks Brown:

Does Brown back Margaret Moran (the Luton MP who claimed around £20,000 for dry rot in a home many miles from her constituency)?

Brown says:

That Moran's behaviour was "totally unacceptable". He says that she should be investigated by the parliamentary commissioner for standards before a decision is taken. (We didn't know that case had gone to the commissioner.) It sounds likes he's just terminated Moran's career.

Now wouldn't that be nice payback, on behalf of 22% of the adult population, for a disgusting, self-righteous bully.

Again, what goes around ...

Another day, more selfish troughing bigots

As if further proof were needed of the selfish nature of anti-smokers, a couple more holier-than-thou Labour smoker-bashers were exposed today as greedy money-grubbers.

The aptly-named George Mudie has been snuffling around trousering as much as he could get away with.

George Mudie, a Labour MP who has been one of Gordon Brown’s key attack dogs over the profligacy of bankers, claimed £62,000 in expenses for his London flat in four years, while having a mortgage of just £26,000.

He was a bit light on what he could claim for mortgage interest seeing as he is lucky enough to only have a £105 per month bill. So why not just kit out his lavish pad with top-of-the-range gear at our expense instead?

£7,000 for a Moben kitchen
£650 for carpets
£580 on repainting
£929 on tile work
£50 parking ticket for his builder
£249 for sofa covers
£299 for an LCD television set
£169.99 for a DVD player
£1,274 for a dining table and four chairs
£1,750 for a bedroom suite
£249 for an LCD television set (yes, another one)
£546 for a settee and chairs
£325 for a leather armchair

To be fair, he did say he will pay back the £50 parking ticket, so that's all right then.

Pub owners will be interested to know that Georgie-boy was quite happy to contribute to their hardship and the death of over 3,000 pubs while he was living the high life at their expense.

Then we have Ben Chapman, another who voted enthusiastically for the smoking ban. And also another Labour MP being, ahem, creative with his mortgage claims.

Documents seen by the Telegraph suggest that between December 2002 and October 2003, Mr Chapman deliberately over-claimed for interest on the mortgage of his London house by about £15,000.

He's not going to pay it back, either.

However, when asked whether he would repay the money, he said: “The answer is no. It’s all something that was agreed a long time ago.”

These people are selfish to the core. They are the final leg baton-carriers of a tobacco control movement which is purely motivated by getting what they, personally, want.

No amount of pleading as to the harsh financial and social realities a blanket ban would bring was ever going to sway them. They want the world on a stick and are solely motivated by self-interest and greed. A trumped up 'health' trojan horse was exactly what their confirmation bias craved to be able to ensure that every pub, club, bingo hall and hotel in the country would be agreeable to them. Fuck everyone else, they got what they wanted and that is all that interests them.

If anyone ever uses the words smokers and selfish in the same sentence to you again, just point them in the direction of hideous porkers like this louche pair.

No pity (2): More faux righteous Labour troughers

It is often said, of smokers who argue against the overly harsh nature of the smoking ban in pubs and clubs, that they are selfish. The premise appears to be that non-smokers should be exclusively entitled to all establishments on their preferred terms, whether they use them or not. The business owner who wishes to offer a smoking environment, and the customers who wish to avail themselves of it, are anti-social to object.

Nothing selfish at all in that stance, is there?

Isn't it funny, then, that arguably the three worst Labour offenders in the expenses debacle just happen to be vehemently rancid anti-smokers.

We've already mentioned the disgusting Elliot Morley creature, who voted to kill off thousands of pubs up and down the country on the back of his not-at-all selfish prejudices, and was also in no way selfish when ripping us off to the tune of £16,000. Hopefully he will continue to not be selfish in his soon-to-be new home, by not acting coy when it comes to picking up that dropped soap in the mornings.

Following him into the righteous wing of Parkhurst should, if natural justice is our friend, be David Chaytor, the fine upstanding member (that's a euphemism, think about it) for Bury North. He was right behind the ripping away of freedoms for pub owners and their customers, too. Not only that, but the ban couldn't come quick enough for this self-righteous maggot, as he exhibited in 2003

Written answers
Friday, 14 March 2003

Health
Smoking

David Chaytor (Bury North, Labour)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make it his policy to support legislation against smoking in the workplace.

With ne'er a thought for those who would be adversely affected by his bigotry, he unselfishly did everything he could to marginalise 10 million smokers and traders reliant on them.

He then showed further incredible selflessness by claiming £13,000 on a mortgage which didn't exist.

A Labour MP has been suspended for claiming £13,000 on a mortgage which had already been paid off.

MP David Chaytor was suspended by Downing Street this morning after it was revealed he continued to submit monthly claims for £1,175 at the taxpayers’ expense, long after the loan was paid off.

I knew Labour were a shower of shit, but I didn't realise how very generous they were in stumbling over each other to offer a shit-packing in the shower.

Then we have the incredibly arrogant Margaret Moran, Labour MP for Luton South, who is beyond the pale. This woman stole £22,000 off us for refurbishing her holiday home (not selfish at all, is it?). She not only voted for the smoking ban, but also threatened a local CIU steward for having the temerity to write to his local newspaper to raise grievances. Public bullying, she called it.

As MPs we are elected to weigh in the balance the greater good for our constituents, and it is for this reason that I wholly support the current policy. No amount of public bullying of the sort you indulge in will change my position.

I also understand that the constitution for working men's clubs mandates that they are not party political. I therefore understand that your public statements have been referred to the relevant governing bodies.

Remarkably, though, this hideous affront to humanity is not only a selfish cunt of the highest order, but also unaware of the irony inherent in throwing accusations of bullying around, when she is a disgusting bully herself.

Neighbours of Ms Moran’s £200,000 farmhouse at Carataunas, south of Granada, have accused her of trying to intimidate them into keeping off her land by pinning hand-written notes bearing the House of Commons Portcullis logo to trees and gateposts.

Not content with this being against parliamentary rules, she even fucking claimed £900 from us in an attempt to stop the evidence being presented!

Commons rules state that its stationery cannot be used for ‘personal, business or commercial correspondence.’

Oh yeah, and she is also a lying bitch.

‘In relation to allegations about misuse of House of Commons notepaper, my client denies any wrongdoing and has decided to make a voluntary referral to the Parliamentary Commissioner so that this matter can be independently resolved.’

Three high-profile anti-smoking bullies who possess more power than those they subjugate = three abhorrent, self-advancing, ignorant pigs.

Now, who are the 'selfish' again?

Disclaimer: The Freedom2Choose blog is opinions of members only and not necessarily condoned by F2C. Language and accusations are mine entirely. So sue me, you fuckers.

No pity

Elliot Morley decided that pubs should die a slow, poverty-stricken death.

Then, once he had wiped his hands of us dirty smokers, he began thieving from us for 18 months on a mortgage he had already paid off.

Elliot Morley, the former agriculture minister, continued claiming for the mortgage interest on his constituency home for more than 18 months after the loan had been repaid.

Lawyers last night said that the claims could constitute a criminal offence under the 2006 Fraud Act and the 1968 Theft Act.

How does it feel to be treated like a stain on society, Elliot? Not nice, is it?

Hopefully you'll soon be sharing a cell with a chain-smoking, sexually-starved psychopath. What goes around etc.

Lord Adonis slams 'some' railway station facilities

Lord Adonis recently embarked on a whistle stop tour of the UK's railway facilities and came to the conclusion that they were pretty poor. Not earth-shatteringly surprising to those of us who use them, but one barometer which Adonis deemed significant was the lack of facilities for indulging in a cup of tea.

In a daily blog for Times Online written during his tour, Lord Adonis described his frustration at being unable to buy a cup of tea at 8pm at Southampton station, which is used by 5.5 million passengers a year.

I take it that the right honourable gent isn't a smoker (he voted for the smoking ban, after all), or else he may have noticed that there are bugger all facilities for having a cigarette anywhere in the entire UK rail network. Not just after 8pm either seeing as it is banned on every platform, despite no study ever even hinting that smoking in the open air can possibly be harmful (mostly because there's no point spending money on studies which have no chance of proving something so laughable).

When smokers have mentioned the inconvenience of this in the past, the reply tends to be a sneering condemnation of their lack of fortitude in abstaining for the duration of their journey, or that they should step outside the station.

Well, Lord Adonis puts the first one to bed with his irritation at not being afforded a cup of tea. He is obviously a weak individual if he can't forgo his cuppa for a little while, n'est-ce pas? Perhaps he should step outside the station and buy his hot drink at another outlet. He might miss his train, but if he wants one that badly ... (as we are are often told).

For example. The journey from Euston to Bolton is nigh on 3 hours with a mere 5 minute change at Stockport. Previously, smokers were able to step off the train and partake in a cigarette before continuing their journey, but since 2007, that isn't possible, so tough titty.

I know it's taboo to even mention such things these days, but perhaps Lord Adonis might like to consider facilities which are denied for a quarter of adult train travellers thanks to an illberal and nonsensical railways bye-law as well, not just options he, personally, may wish to enjoy. To put it in perspective for him, it's like having no chance of a cup of tea either at the station or on the train, at whatever time of day he travels, and on whichever class ticket.

From Lands End to John O'Groats.

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.