I was recently made aware, thanks to Dick Puddlecote, about a debate taking place on a NuLab councillor's blog about why, in his opinion, people are turning away from what he calls the Labour Party. I think most of us would agree that he was very perceptive in his views but he took the NuLab stance of sticking his fingers in his ears when it was pointed out that the smoking ban is yet another reason why many people (about 15 million of them) also hate NuLab.
I had pointed out that people have a cultural attachment to smoking which NuLab has failed to recognise and if it was just about health, then I don't hear NuLab calling for a blanket ban on other health risk pollutants such as trafiic. This was dismissed in the usual NuLab way by Cllr Tim and reasoned with the same kind of patronising arrogance we have come to expect from this new breed of politician.
By way of illustrating my point, I took the above photo as me and Hampy travelled through the Tyne Tunnel. It was a hot day, the windows of the car were open as we entered the Tunnel, and then Hampy began to cough and choke frantically, and he felt sick. The windows went up when I reminded him of the advice of my daughter not to open windows when going through because of the heavy traffic fumes which she says make her feel ill.
Those of us with some common sense know that if all of the people in those cars walked and smoked through the tunnel, the pollution would be nothing like it is when cars and lorries drive through.
The antis and their allies in Govt are now calling for a ban on smoking in cars. If they weren't such hypocrites and zealots, they would know that it is not going to make an ounce of difference to anyone's health. If they weren't prejudicial bigots who really cared about the health of the nation and the protection of children, they would call for a blanket ban on traffic (and then wouldn't they kill two birds with one stone). Of course they wouldn't do that, and actually I wouldn't want them to, but I would feel less persecuted if they at least tried to level the health playing fields.