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

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.

Pub closures 2005: 2006: 2007

It is, to some, hard to believe the extent of pub closures due to the SBE (Smoking Ban Experiment) so it is helpful to have a graphical reminder of the carnage wrought by this despicable ban. Basil Brown gives such a lucid reminder.

If you have not already signed up to the campaign SOPAC (Save Our Pubs And Clubs) then I urge you to do so today.



UK Pub closures [British Beer and Pub Association figures]

2005: 102
2006: 216
2007: 1,409

Big H/T of gratitude to Smoke Alarm:

UPDATE: Now included are the figures for 2008 and the overall figure for all pub closures since ground zero 2007 to 2009.