Fag End
‘BRITAIN gives up smoking, says the Timess front-page headline. And we wonder if we have all, like some North Korean Army display team, acted as one?
A quick look about Anorak Towers reveals this news to be true. We have all given up smoking. Who needs hypnosis and nicotine patches when the Times can achieve so much with a simple four-word statement? Not us.
Feeling refreshed, clean and so very righteous, we read that the Commons has voted to ban smoking from all pubs, clubs and workplaces from next year.
Ms Hewitt, the odourless Health Secretary, tells the paper that smoking is to be banned in virtually every enclosed public place and workplace.
Serve food or dont serve food, the ban on smoking in pubs holds just the same. Even if all the members and staff at your private club smoke like camp fires, the ban will hold.
The world must be smoke free. Indeed, it wont be long before filters, of the type once fitted to your morning gasper, are plugged into chimneys and car exhausts.
And it is all for your own good. Hewitt says so. And despite her dithering she had supported a partial ban for pubs and clubs serving food, as promised in the Labour Partys election manifesto she is the expert on such matters. So pay attention.
Says she: Over time we estimate an additional 600,000 people will give up smoking as a result of this law and millions more will be protected from second-hand smoke.
Whether this figure includes the smokers who will pop outside for a fag, smoke more at home or just carry on puffing over their pub pint is not mentioned.
But the Independent does note that not everyone is delighted. Its about basic human rights, says Phil Sullivan, a member of Lee Working Mens Club, London. Who are we disturbing by having a cigarette tucked away here?
Not that he is smoking. Not since everyones given up…’
Posted: 15th, February 2006 | In: Uncategorized Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
