Smoking Ban - Hard Cases Make Bad Law
Posted June 8th, 2007 by Tom
in
- civil liberties
- uk politics
Overheard at Chiswick Railway Station:
Owing to new Government Legislation, on 1st July this station will become smoke-free
Chiswick station is *unmanned* 95% of the time, and has no buildings other than the booking office, open only during the short time there is someone there. The rest of the time it's as open to the elements as the bus stop next to it. Presumably it's illegal to smoke there, too, as occasionally a bus turns up and it becomes a place of work. Why do I suspect that this legislation was badly written?
I shall take up smoking on
I shall take up smoking on July 1st.
I thought the ban only applied to 'indoor public places'. Surely even NL can't spin a railway platform as 'indoors'..?
Has anyone been to Camelot
Has anyone been to Camelot theme park? Long before July 1st, this emporium of children's fairground rides and Arthurian jousting has been a smoke-free site. It is an outdoor site, 99% open to the elements. Parents and teachers huddled in a shaded corner were being threatened with expulsion from the site for smoking illicitly.
!
The UK does not have a
The UK does not have a monopoly of stupidity in non-smoking legislation. Here in Hong Kong we have had a non-smoking law since the beginning of the year. Not satisfied with banning smoking in all public indoor areas (which, as a smoker, I think is entirely sensible) the administration has, in its ineffable wisdom banned smoking in outdoor areas which, bizarrely, include beaches and the whole of the harbourfront. Meanwhile, marine traffic and motor vehicles continue to pour more pollutants into the atmosphere in one day than could be generated by all the smokers in the world - and that's not even counting the mass of industrial pollution that comes in from the Pearl River delta.
As a non-smoker who has had
As a non-smoker who has had to breath other people's tobacco smoke for decades, I don't feel any sympathy when I hear smokers carping on about their rights. In fact, it makes me smirk.
The only people who benefit
The only people who benefit from cigarette-smoking are the big corporations who lie and manipulate to make sure as many people as possible take up the filthy fatal habit. They're shitting themselves that the developed countries will eventually stop smoking altogether so they're recruiting poor third world children into nicotine addictions to keep the revenue coming. These countries don't have a welfare state and subsidized or generic theraputic or palliative drugs to treat their man-made cancers so they will suffer very badly. Enough of this crap about the right to smoke. Analyse the reality of it and be consistent. These are amongst the worst global corporations out there. Or perhaps you would like Kenneth Clarke to get even richer? Tom, I think there are bigger injustices than not smoking in a rural train station. Get your game back!
The rest of the time it's as
The rest of the time it's as open to the elements as the bus stop next to it.
In Scotland there was a big debate about whether bus stops were enclosed spaces. Some of them are now deemed to be, the general rule being that if it is roofed and more than 50% walled, then it is an enclosed space and you cannot smoke in it. You can smoke around the bus stop, and even out from under the roof on the open side, but not in it.
DK