Let the festivities begin but...

By John Watson

You are invited to this year’s New Years Eve party, I regret that The Healthists have laid down a few rules before it is permitted:
 

OFFICE OF ANTI-FUN AND GOOD HEALTH

　
NEW YEAR’S EVE PARTIES:

In line with Anti-Fun and Good Health Policy the structure of New Year’s Eve Parties has been revised:

OBESITY.

In order to reduce expenditure on healthcare for the clinically obese the following orders are implemented:
1) All meats served will be lean or meat substitutes.
2) The use of butter is forbidden.
3) The eating of Haggis ‘neaps and tatties’ is forbidden.
4) Ethnic foodstuffs remain unaffected.
5) The serving of Crisps, Savouries, Hotdogs, Hamburgers or Kebabs are strictly forbidden.
6) No salt permitted.


By order:

Horace Beanpole.

Essengauleiter (District Leader Eating) UK.

DRINKING.

In order to reduce expenditure on healthcare for alcoholism the following orders are implemented:
1) All beers are to be low alcohol.
2) Absolutely no Spirit’s with the exception of Ghosts, Ghouls And Poltergeists.
3) All soft drinks are to be sugar free.
4) Energy drinks will be permitted for those over 65 years provided they are accompanied by both parents.

By order

Sir Reginald Ratted-Boozey MBE. OBE.

Trinkesgauleiter (District Leader Drinking) UK.
　
TOBACCO.

In order to reduce expenditure on healthcare for Smoking Ailments the following orders are implemented:
1) There is to be no smoking indoors.

2) Smokers will be provided with an outside enclosure not less than 1000 metres from New Years Eve Parties.

3) Armed guards, razor wire, searchlight towers with or without machine gun posts and dogs are available from your local garrison on request.

4) Demonstrations such as the singing of Auld Lang Syne are forbidden.

5) Any attempt to have fun is forbidden.

By order:
　
Sheila von Gorbals.

Rauchsgauleiterin (District Leader Smoking) UK.

By order this day 22-12-10

Heideki Banzai III.

Deputy Fuhrer Anti Smoking.

Stanley Von Grass.

Fuhrer Anti Smoking.

I wish that you all Have A merry Christmas and a Very, Very, Happy New Year!

John Watson.

 Happily filtched from the Taking Liberties blog.

True Irish logic & eleutheria !

In 2004 Southern Ireland were basically bludgeoned into implementing a smoking ban, which they duly did.

Nothing much was said about it over here as it obviously did not affect us at all. The problem was that nobody thought to publicise the fact that in the first year alone 1,000 businesses closed throughout the country. Now, for a relatively small country that is one hell of a lot of businesses! I cannot imagine the cost in revenue to the government but then I'lI suppose they never really considered the losses either amid the furore of being the trend setters in smoke-free!

In a bid to curb smoking habits the government had a brainwave; that being to ban the sale of packs of 10 cigarettes-the logic being that 'ten packs' were all that teenagers (and lesser ages) could afford. Hello? Anybody consider that young Seamus & young Tommy might pool their resources and by a twenty pack? Apparently not, so that was a complete waste of time and effort on the part of the Dáil Éireann.

The next 'gem' was the inevitable increase in the price of a pack of twenty, which at € 8.55 a pack “are the highest in the world”. So that's the smoking problem sorted then-again!

On top of that the goverment ensured the ending of in-store displays and advertising for tobacco products, presumably under the misguided premise that what you can't see you won't buy! Righty ho then.

Southern Ireland is now the laughing stock of Europe unfortunately for not only has the smking ban cost them £millions in lost revenue from now closed businesses, it is costing them £millions in lost revenue from tobacco sales! Now you would think that this loss might be acceptable but that is far from the truth because smoking rates have increased by at least 2% and tobacco sales have fallen due to the amount of smuggled tobacco coming into the country!

The Irish government now estimate that they are losing out on £1m per week in tobacco revenue but who can have any sympathy with them? They have ensured that a nation of carefree smoker/drinkers lose 1,000 watering holes, kicked the smokers out of whatever is left and yet still expect to profit from the exercise.

Unfortunately for them, their populace has stuck two fingers up at them-and fair play to them for that! Link:- http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/1217/1224285736185.html

Meanwhile the Greeks have done their ususal and gone way OTT in refusing to accept a smoke ban! There, they have made their disapproval clearly known as a spate of letter bombs in Athens and widespread ignoring of any form of ban.

You see, the greeks take these things rather seriously, well, as a personal affront actually so there is plenty of chance of civil riots kicking off again if the government tries too hard to enforce the ban. It appears that even the health minister admits that the smoking law cannot be effectively implemented so I don't think there will be much compliance-if any.

Link:- http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2010/1217/1224285735360.html

Amazing really when you compare the diabolical lethargy by licensees in this country to the volatile Greeks and the slow but methodical Dutch. The Dutch soon got 1,200 licensees together @£250 per annum each to fight for their rights-and they won. They now have the right to earn a decent living and contribute to the Dutch economy once more. What do our miserable lot do? SFA-that's what! Instead of forming a licensees army to take on the government they sat back and continue to sit back in the hope that they survive! You see, the fundamental difference is that the Greeks believe in "eleutheria" (freedom) whereas we do but don't really want to do anything about it-until it's too late.

Wake up you numpties, what have you got to lose-apart from what little bit of sanity is left!

I didnn't realise what was happening!

I was just merely getting on with my life in my own way until the moral majority decided that I was declared persona non grata! I was deemed  a non person, someone that has a lifestyle (smoking a fag is a lifestyle?) that someone else does not agree with, which I have heard most of my life but it never came to a head until recent years when it was declared open season on smokers..then all hell let loose!  WTF have I done wrong? Am I black? Am I a Jew? Am I a homosexual? Ok, maybe not a Fauxmily but it is appropriate in this instance.

Now I am an outcast because of my ‘lifestyle’ as a smoker. I am deemed not worthy of sitting alongside  my fellow human beings that do not smoke, whether they object or not, because the law lies lays in the pretence of the non-smoking friends of mine, the pretence that my smoking, and to be particular, the Second Hand Smoke that I give out, is lethal to the point of death!

Would I do that to my beloved friends and family? No! Why?? Because I know that SHS is nothing more than an irritant to the non smoker.

Now I’m no scientific genius, just a smoker who knows a con when I hear it and am appalled at the suggestion that I am killing all around me by my ‘lifestyle.’

I want the smoking ban in the hospitality industry REPEALED…but I am told that that is unrealistic, I am told that the general public love the ban, I am told many things by many ‘informed’ people with vested interests what is good for me and I am also told that the DEBATE is over, period!

It doesn’t matter what ‘lifestyle’ choice I partake of, having an enjoyable puff on a cigarette/pipe/cigars/shish pipe or imbibe the new taboo, alcohol, or like a burger now and again and even like a shake of salt on my food there is a fascist out there who has the ear of government and the government listens without question because they are concerned about us dying without reason, the same government that sends our sons and daughters to their deaths on a whim and expect us to accept the same old drone that the DEBATE is over, period!

Well the debate is far from over, no matter your hatred of  that debate.

Below is an edited version of such a debate about the smoking ban here in the UK and the recent rolling back of the ban in the Netherlands. Listen to Wiel Maessen’s common sense approach to anti business, anti smoking nannyists with an axe to grind who are terminally offended at the drop of a hat.

Listen at the absurdity of the Dutch passing a swinging smoking ban whilst  trying to hang on to it’s liberal attitude about smoking pot, a thing I have never done in my life but will not condemn anyone that does so. Nor will I condemn someone that eats at McDonalds or drinks too much wine!

Listen also to one of my hero’s in the anti smoking debate, Nick Hogan, who ran a successful hospitality empire in the North West, and note the word HOSPITALITY, business and suffered the consequences of defying the ban by a) losing his business and b) losing his health!

And there's more...

Petition from Save Our Pubs & Clubs

Sign the petition against more EC regulations!
The smokers’ lobby group Forest, a leading member of the Save Our Pubs & Clubs coalition, has launched an online petition against new proposals to regulate tobacco throughout the European Union.

The Morning Advertiser reports that proposed changes to the European Commission’s Tobacco Products Directive include a ban on the display of tobacco products, the introduction of plain packaging, the enlargement of picture warnings on packs and the prohibition of all types of smokeless tobacco products.

“We support measures that educate children and adults about the health risks of smoking, but we oppose unnecessarily restrictive regulations that are designed to denormalise a legal product and will threaten jobs and small businesses and inconvenience millions of law-abiding citizens throughout Europe,” said Forest director Simon Clark.


“We urge everyone who opposes these proposals to sign the online petition that will be submitted to the EC as part of the consultation. It is essential that we make our voices heard in Brussels as well as in Westminster.”


Clark, who is also director of the Save Our Pubs & Clubs campaign, added, "Although the consultation is about tobaco products, it is all part of the war on tobacco. If we can influence this battle it will put us in a stronger position to address the issue of smoking in pubs and clubs."

Signatories to the petition will be delivered by Forest to the European Commission in Brussels on 17 December. To sign it visit www.forestpetition.eu.
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