TIME FOR A CHANGE

It's nice to see the Leicester Mercury bring up the issue of the draconian smoking ban after the news that Holland has relaxed it's laws to allow for choice in certain areas.

Landlords here are reasonably asking for our law to be amended on common sense grounds.

Most people in the article think getting smokers off the street is the fairest and best social option - except one person who is more bothered about the smell of his clothes.

He says he never went out before the ban but he always had a choice. Smokers don't. There were always places for smoke phobics to go that smokers wouldn't visit and vice versa. I still don't get why that sort of person - obviously in the minority - has to have it all his own way.

In that article the landlords are talking about the majority of their customers, some of them non-smokers, who also call for choice. In just that article the anti-smoker is outnumbered 3/1 by those who smoke and those who do not.

What was that you saying about "Change you can believe in," Dave - eh? Perhaps I didn't hear you for the loud cry of your bedfellow Cleggy who screamed he was going to tear up the statute book in the name of fairness and civil liberties.

A PUB THAT NEEDS SMOKERS

This pub landlord obviously needs smokers and he must think this sign will draw them in. It made me look twice.

I noticed it while walking about Skegness in my lunch half hour yesterday. I would have gone in if I'd had time. We smokers are definitely in the majority in the town and this landlord wants to offer us hospitality if only he could - especially today as it chucked it down.

There's no sight more miserable than a collection of all sorts of people on holiday in a grey, wet, and seaside town huddled in doorways and under canopies. Some had pushchairs and wheelchairs as they sheltered. Most people were smoking, some were not.

Outdoor restaurant, cafe, and pub tables, all with ashtrays filling rapidly with rain, were empty but are usually full on nice days. Non-smokers are now more exposed to smoke than ever before because of this ridiculous ill thought out law.

People who hate smoke have to walk through smokers to get to the door of these establishments, they walk among smokers on the street, smoke is everywhere. We cannot choose to be segregated from them nor they from us. We have to mix. We cannot choose to take up the hospitality that the landlord would like to offer us while they take up the hospitality of one who wouldn't.

I haven't met any anti-smokers during my short time in Skegness but judging from an early summer headline I've seen, the town has had problems with "filthy" litter from smokers and resolves to "get tough".

I mentioned to my newsdesk that it would be great to have a positive litter campaign of awareness and promotion of pocket ashtrays, rather than the heavy hammer of an official threat that starts from the "filthy smoker" stance.

The real culprit is not smokers but the smoking ban. If smokers could go inside and use the ashtrays provided for them by the business owners who want to provide them,then there would be no litter on the street. But when I looked in town today, I didn't see the problem.

Bins and street ashtrays are provided and they are used. Those fag ends that I did see in the street were starting to degrade they were so old. I also saw the odd plastic bottle, chip tray, and drink can here and there too. Litter is litter. Why should it have special significance because a smoker dropped it?

Incidentally, I don't go out for fag breaks while at work. I'm not a "pathetic addict" you see. I just simply don't have time and this week has been hell hence the lack of posts yesterday.

THE UNELECTABLES

Could things be finally turning in the favour of common sense and fair play?

Pete Robinson over at The Publican says :

'With ASH withering on the vine, the LibDems are the only hurdle to overcome before sanity is restored."

I don't think we will have to suffer these ilLiberal Demotwats much longer as it happens. Cleggy is riding on a wave of self-important egotism and he is blind to the fact that the Tories are giving him enough rope to hang himself and his party before the next election.

It's issue on the stance of Freedom of Choice, Cleggy's clanger of mentioning a hugely popular amendment to the smoking ban in the same breath as the death penalty, and the Party's false promises on the scam that is the "Freeeeedom Bill" will ensure that they will take massive strides backwards and become as unelectable as Nulabour unless they stop dismissing the feelings of 25% of this country.

They just don't get it although coun Carl Minns does. He shows that there are very rare nuggets of common sense and decency among the ilLiberal ranks. It's a shame there are so few tolerant and fair members in that party. It could have offered real hope to so many who are looking for someone and something to believe in.

Cleggy sold the party's soul for five years playing mummies and daddies with Cameron in no 10. My own opinion is that he will live to regret it.