AWFUL

I read this awful news today and so forgive me for using it as a reality check to measure the paranoia of anti-smokers.

They haven't yet got their way on a car smoke ban for the sake of the "chiiildren" but they are pushing ever further with the excuse that smoking in cars kills (insert massive number for dramatic and persuasive affect) each year.

The awful truth is that driving cars is far more risky than smoking in them as the tragic story above shows. Should we, therefore, be tarred as child abusers because we smoke in them? Are we child abusers because we don't choose safer modes of transport like walking, flying, or taking the train?

Each time we get in our vehicles and set off an a journey we are putting our lives and those of our children in danger . Even if we take the greatest care.

The smoking in cars issue should be put into perspective. Most parents err on the side of good manners when children are present. Most of mine have never minded my smoking with the window open - I've asked them. Daughter number one did. She's always hated smoking. She's very tolerant. I'm very polite. We don't have a problem.

In wider society, this used to be called good manners and tolerance and we worked it out between us to the benefits of both sides.

We didn't throw public money legalised discrimination, humiliation dehumanisation and denormalisation to take sides.

What we're paying for in anti-smoker costs panders to hysteria. Their claim that smoking should be banned in cars, and in the home, defies logic and encourages prejudices. It doesn't save lives. Second hand smoke does not kill.

There are greater causes than the anti-smoking issue to fight and real tragedies that deserve our sympathy.

The calls for a smoking ban in cars, in more public places and even people's homes is not about health. It's about spite, hate, prejudice, and paranoid fear.

Will this coalition government continue to waste money on the non-health issue or will it begin to invest in some of those really expensive projects like Hobhole Drain that really would benefit the public and really save lives?

Why am I not hopeful that this trendy NuGovt will get it's priorities right?


UPDATE
The awful story above about the new born baby orphaned when her parents died in a car accident just gets worse

ROAD TO PROHIBITION HELL

One thing my mother always told me was that Italian drivers were nuts and I remember her recounting the story of a favourite English Priest who spent time in her mother country.

His overwhelming memory was how trying to cross the road was like taking your life into your own hands and indeed, he almost had his foot run over when he attempted to get from one side to the other in Rome.

Imagine my surprise, therefore, when I read that Italy is considering a ban on smoking in cars to make drivers safer. I doubt that if such a ban was enforced, the Italian motorists would drive with less passion but then the smoking issue isn't about safety or health in any event and these irritable and unneccessary bans are creeping further into individual liberty and turning citizens into non-descript morons.

At least the article in the Wall Street Journal has this to say : Where is this tide of norms leading? The U.K. government is also considering the banning of smoking in the vicinity of children—no matter where, including private houses. Alas, the "where" is a crucial part. What governments are creeping toward is full sovereignty over citizens' private lives. Public health comes before property rights—this is the lesson. But how does this fit into the rules of a free society?

The existence of a space that is free from government intervention is the cornerstone of a free society. "On himself, over his body and mind, the individual is sovereign," to quote John Stuart Mill. This presupposes the very existence of a space where such sovereignty could find a home: private property defines such a space.

The government doesn't own restaurants (luckily), nor cars besides those used by ministers and high civil servants. It can properly regulate their use to prevent a reckless or dangerous behavior. But assuming that lighting up a cigarette is a distraction seriously affecting the other drivers, pushes the notion of negative externalities too far—and the realm of personal privacy too far back.

Read the article linked below about moves to further persecute smokers in the false name of good health and safety ( a new weapon now used to beat smokers).

* One final point of note is that in the years that I have covered a magistrates court, I only saw one motorist fined for a minor one car collision caused because the woman driver was reaching down into the footwell of her car to reach for a packet of fags as she drove. ONE CASE IN 10 YEARS. This monumental act of stupidity is not exclusive to one smoker but any other nut reaching down for something without pulling over and stopping first.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704304504574609643659157668.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

CHRISTMAS WITH A BANG

I thought I'd got it sussed this year. All summer and autumn, my other half and I worked tirelessly picking fruit, making jam, and fermenting wine. Nice, stylish proper kitchen jars and bottles were bought from a classy shop, hampers were made, packed, and stored between August and November and very smart they looked too. There was plum jam, mint jelly, damson jam, and lilac, plum, pear, and damson wine.

Then I spotted this status on daughter No 2's Facebook profile : "I'm still reeling from the assasination attempt!!! Bottle of home brewed wine has exploded in me kitchen!! glass and bloody cork everywhere .... Any confessions to make ...????"

I have said before that the older kids get the more they break your heart but I obviously wouldn't have intended any harm and I'm actually quite mortified to think what might have happened if daughter No 2's family, including my one year old Grandaughter No 2, had been in the kitchen at the time of the explosion. Thank God they were not.

The incident frightened her so much, however, that she threw away a damn fine bottle of lilac. The jam and jelly seem to have hit the spot in a more pleasant way.

Daughter No 3 said the bottle of fizzy plum she also received in her hamper simply popped the cork from the bottle and nothing worse than flat wine resulted from that. Happily, there have been no other encounters with exploding wine and the hampers were well received. The lesson next year is not to use champagne yeast, we think, but as novices in all this, perhaps we should just send them out with a health warning.

The rest of our Christmas was lovely. My friend Lou came over on the day and joined me and my other half in eating, drinking and smoking, while Son No 1, stayed in his room and plugged into his computer.

Boxing Day was just as pleasant with a visit from my sister and her family, Daughter No1 and her fiancee, Daughter No 3 and Grandaughter No1 . Mulled wine all round the adults, and some nice munchies for the kids from a buffet made in Iceland and a lasagna made by eldest daughter who also contributed a very nice trifle.

Yesterday was peaceful heaven of eating, drinking, smoking, pampering, and then leaving for an evening get together at my mate Juliette's house to finish off Christmas leftovers. As soon as my other half struck up the engine of his car, something snapped, it whirred to a whisper and then it died. Begrudingly, he got into my car which was about as lively as a rabbit without duracell before the engine refused to turn over at all. There wasn't much that could be done last night but today all is well. My other half is simply a God. He can't save his car but he has sussed out what is wrong with mine and he has fixed it.