Sunday sermon

I hate to be bearer of bad news, especially on a Sunday, but it would appear that we're not going to heaven.


If one out of four was good enough, I might have a chance (though that would depend on a strict interpretation of the word 'sleep').

Wasting your money

Via Taking Liberties, the Taxpayers Alliance are highlighting the huge waste by the EU in a series of cinema adverts.



And what are they spending all this money on? Well, quite a lot of it goes towards stamping down hard on freedom of choice all over Europe.

The smoking ban in Greece is not effective, according to Greek officials, who said that they will launch a review of the law that was passed earlier this year, following complaints from non-smokers at home and pressure from the European Union.

The full article illustrates the dictatorial nature of the EU. The Greek people have delivered an overwhelming rejection of the EU-led anti-tobacco crusade, so the answer from Brussels is not to respect the will of the people ... but to crush it with all means at their disposal.

Remember that you pay for this.

bunun yapmanın yolu

The title is a (probably ham-fisted) tribute to our Turkish colleagues who have shown brilliantly today that, if a community is going to protest against illiberal and nonsensical smoking bans, their approach is one to be admired. Translated, it says 'That's the way to do it'.

Hundreds of Turks have taken to the streets of Ankara to protest against a ban on smoking in bars and restaurants which was brought in last month.

Many of the protesters are cafe owners who say the ban is hurting trade and want smoking to be allowed in special areas of their establishments.

From the video accompanying the Comrade Beeb story, they look to be having one of those things that we used to be famous for too. Namely, a right good knees-up.

"Don't add a coffeehouse crisis to the economic crisis," one banner read.

Other banners threatened that the party of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a supporter of the ban, would suffer at the next election.

Indeed he will.

Perhaps he should take note from the UK, where even the 'Brown Bounce' after Blair's resignation on 27th June 2007 (clever boy), couldn't help the one-eyed jock from the backlash once the weather turned in October of that fateful year.

Labour have never recovered.



Alienating smokers isn't just bad for business, as Turkish cafe/restaurant owners have found to their cost, it is also very bad for political careers.

When will they ever learn, eh?

Graph courtesy of Sky's Poll Tracker.

How very dare they?

Where does one start with this crap from the Sunday Sun? Might as well have a look at the beginning and see how it goes from there.

'Devious' tobacco bosses slammed

TOBACCO bosses have been slammed for “marketing death” by using beautiful young women dressed in orange satin jump suits to sell their product in busy bars.

Young women, carrying trays reminiscent of those used by ice cream vendors at cinemas, have been going into pubs selling cigarettes.

The pubs involved, which include the Centurion bar in Newcastle city centre, allow the girls into the bar in return for a small amount in commission for each packet sold.

One can only assume that the deviousness referred to is that of selling a legal product, to those who are legally permitted to buy it, on premises where the legal owner has given his/her assent.

How very dare they?

There's not really much to object to, but I'm sure some righteous bint will be along soon to tell us exactly what to think (it's not like we're allowed to make decisions for ourselves or anything like that).

Lo and behold.

The sales tactic was blasted by Ailsa Rutter, Director of Fresh – the campaign for a smoke-free North East.

She said: “What this is doing is glamorising the most lethal consumer product known.

“The last thing we need is the blatant promotion of cigarettes, which are the region’s biggest killer.

“There needs to be more regulation of an industry which is basically marketing death.”

There is so much wrong with this (apart from yankee spelling from the journo) that it is laughable.

More regulation? Listen, dearie, if your lot hadn't legislated a legal business out of every other avenue of promotion, this wouldn't be happening. If you need someone to shoot, try turning the holier-than-thou gun on yourself, eh?

And as for the 'last thing that we need'? When you use the first person plural, please don't include me, or any of the other 11 million smokers, in your definition of 'we'.

Ms Rutter said: “This is another example of why we’ve still got a huge amount of work to do."

No, Ailsa, this is another example of why people like you should be strangled at birth. Just shut the fuck up.

“I’m not having a go at the girls at all, they are just doing their job, but the companies need to be regulated"

Oh. How incredibly generous of you, your tediousness. Let's turn that one on its head, shall we? I'm not having a go at you for being an interfering fucknut, as you are just doing your job, but those who employ you, and those who pay for 'services' such as yours, should be taken somewhere dark and quiet and given a kicking of biblical proportions. Seeing as we are all equal under the law, I'm sure you will concede that my opinion is as valid as yours, yes?

“I would argue that there needs to be a proper licensing system. We need to be limiting the number of outlets that can sell this product and we’re calling on the Government to do everything in its power to tackle this."

There is that 'we' again. 'We' need to do nothing of the sort.

That aside, you're calling on the government (no capitalising from me when it isn't deserved) to do so, are you? Well, that would be quite simple seeing as you are entirely paid for by them. I believe it is called 'Astroturfing', a term you like to apply to groups such as Freedom2Choose who receive no backing whatsoever, whilst simultaneously benefitting from exactly such patronage yourself. A bit ... err ... devious, wouldn't you say?

Can we take it from this, then, that banning legal companies legally selling their legal product to legally entitled customers on legal premises, will be on the agenda of the next 'smokefree everywhere' wankfest?

Considering we will never get any semblance of common sense from any smokefree dirtbag, it is probably best that we finish with incontestable logic from the tobacco industry instead.

A spokesman for Japan Tobacco International, the parent company for Benson and Hedges, said: “It’s not illegal to sell tobacco products. You have to be over 18 to buy tobacco and that’s why they were visiting an over-18 venue.

“All of our staff are fully trained on challenging for ID - we have a policy of no ID, no sale.”

Not much to argue against there really. Might I also add that Japan Tobacco generate their funds from willing purchasers, instead of leeching off enforced and unpopular taxation, like certain bigoted, state-sponsored prodnoses I could mention?

More illicit longevity

Health rules go up in smoke for Kitty, 100

A pensioner has revealed her secret of reaching 100 - smoking 20 cigarettes a day for 84 years.

Great-grandmother Kitty Butcher has puffed her way through a pack of cigarettes every day since she was a teenager in 1925.

Mrs Butcher, of Paignton, Devon, still gets through 20 a day as well as several whiskies before she goes to bed.

And drinks too? That'll have the righteous blowing a bloody fuse, woman. Expect not to reach 101 once someone from the 'caring' community gets hold of you.

The former greengrocer has now reached her 100th birthday and says she has no intention of kicking the habit.

Mrs Butcher, a widow and mother of three, said: "I have been smoking since I was 16 and have never stopped.

"I just don't know how I have managed it, getting to 100. I have had such fun in my life."

Fun? Who ever said life was about having fun?

This woman needs re-educating. Life isn't about enjoying oneself, it's about providing beneficial statistics for fake charities, in order that they can claim grants from the public sector and keep themselves in a job.

Get with the program, Kitty. Just die, will you? You're messing up ASH & Alcohol Concern's average wrongdoer longevity stats. Think of it as your gift to the chiiildren.

The animals queued up two by two*

Contrary to the public opinion encouraged by pharma-funded anti-smoking loons, Freedom2Choose is a pro-choice organisation (the clue is in the name), not just pro-smoking.

As such, F2C is in the same corner as The Free Society, and the Adam Smith Institute, in defending personal choice for each individual in our country.

Unfortunately, there are those who wish to ride roughshod over the rights of the individual on all issues at all times, in their relentless march towards bland righteous conformity. F2C have long warned that the smoking ban was just a salami slice towards total abandonment of the concept of personal choice, as Rod Liddle at the Spectator alluded to a couple of months ago.

The smoking ban was always going to be the thin end of the wedge

Rod Liddle is appalled by Sir Liam Donaldson’s deployment of statistics in the hope of making it harder to have a drink. A surrealist would struggle to keep up with such campaigns against our human pleasures

Well, Oldham Council, an unholy alliance of Labour and Liberal Socialist Democrats are duly proving F2C to be very prescient.

If you are in agreement with the righteous, please bid the time-honoured tradition of buying a round a nostalgic farewell on the way.

Drinkers in Oldham will have to queue at bars and buy no more than two beers at a time in an attempt to curb violence and binge-drinking.

Customers will be encouraged to stand behind rope barriers similar to those used in banks and post offices as they wait to be served, while drinking in the queue will also be discouraged, under new proposals.

Derek Heffernan, a Liberal Democrat councillor, said: "There would have to be some form of barrier so people couldn't push past, either a rope or perhaps something stronger.

"It would be the end of buying a round but we have to do something to calm things down. There have been fights and stabbings and it's not right that people going out for the evening have to worry about being attacked."

As usual, common sense flies out of the window with these idiots. Collective punishment rules yet again. A few rotten apples cause trouble** and the evening entertainment of the whole has to suffer. No exceptions for the well-behaved - guilty until proven innocent.

The fact that laws already exist to punish those who behave badly seems to have totally escaped the notice of Oldham Councillors.

I shouldn't laugh at the BBPA objecting like a limp lettuce to this latest attack on their trade, but it wasn't unexpected by those who were forward-thinking. The BBPA's previous approach with regard to freedom of choice issues has been supine appeasement. One wonders if they might be slowly waking up to the threat that this type of righteous knee-jerking poses to their members, but they and CAMRA have spectacularly failed to do so thus far, so don't hold your breath.

It won't bother the righteous too much ... they wouldn't have more than one friend to buy a round for anyway.

* Obscure Noah's Ark reference

** Funny how MPs bleat that we shouldn't judge the majority on the actions of a minority who steal from us, but all of us have to suffer greatly because of the actions of a negligible minority when the righteous choose.

H/T Devil's Kitchen