Here's a piece of good news to take us into the New Year and something that all smokers should be aware of as local authorities try and use bully-boy tactics to force smokers out of their communities as discrimination against them continues unabated.
Freedom2Choose has revealed that councils have no legal powers to stop people smoking in the open air although in Coventry at least, they will be forming Nagging or Bullying Policies in a bid to deny smoker council tax payers from using the very facilities they pay for.
They believe that Nagging smokers into submission justifies the discrimination they use against law abiding people they want to exclude from their communities.
So if approached by some Jobsworth paid to harass you if you smoke, your response should be that you are not breaking the law and they should just go away. But even though they may put you under severe provocation through their harassment, don't bite because they can then criminalise you under public order offences if you raise your voice or take issue with them.
Just be polite, smile and continue enjoying your cigarette** and tell the Jobsworth that you are breaking no laws and such council policy has no basis in law. In fact, ask them to quote what part of the Health Act 2006 they are using to stop you acting legally because they simply won't be able to tell you.
Meanwhile, as this awful fourth year of the ban is almost over, The Resistance fight continues and the anti-smoker fascists are being exposed further as their fraudulent junk science is revealed as not standing up to scrutiny
Let's hope 2012 is the year when discrimination ends against our lifestyle group and others and that the Govt starts actually funding patient care in the NHS and not propaganda designed by the bigoted ASH.
Don't forget that in Labour's term of office ONE BILLION POUNDS was thrown into the anti-smoker black hole of TV propaganda and various smoke free groups that were dying on their feet before this immoral piece of legislation was enforced through threat of criminal prosecution.
That money could have been so much better used in public service in all sorts of ways
** And don't forget to use your own pocket ashtrays.