IS THIS HOW IT'S DONE ?

I can't honestly say that I noticed much division between smokers and non-smokers before July 2007. There were a few people who really hated smoke but there wasn't the contempt, bitterness, and fear that is now shown towards people who smoke that appears to be hyped up year on year.

And to be honest, if this bloke really is a non-smoker who has been fined more than £300 because of the council's obsession to get smokers, I can understand that he might now hate smokers in a way he probably didn't before.

He might not see that it is an unjust law, a corrupt public health policy, and a bigoted council that has inadvertently caught him in the trap they set for smokers. He might just see that the "selfish" actions of a smoker has brought him trouble. It's a shame I missed that court case. I'd have liked to spoken to him.

In other news today, I note how a smoker of 50 years who began when he was 11 has quit using e-cigs. Good for him. I said ages ago that they were a great quitting aid but I am rather disturbed by his view that he is now "so pleased" to be a non-smoker.

We know that too many former smokers suddenly become wholly righteous when they quit and seem to think they have a licence to become far more abusive towards smokers than the average smoke hater. I sincerely hope that this is not the case with this chap and I hope he never sees the day when the e-cig is banned in the UK.

But it is easy to see how the war on smokers, and public disgust at them, is created by the state, it's propaganda and it's draconian and oppressive laws.

WALES NEXT

Image from here

One would think that the historical Welsh fight against oppression would still be raw enough in the Walian mindset to avoid them sleepwalking into becoming slaves once again to English directives. Sadly, however, it would seem that the modern masters of the Principality have forgotten their proud roots and are hurtling towards the oppression of a significant minority of people in their country and setting out on the road to kill off their tourist industry.

Yes, the Welsh are stupidly gearing up towards being the first to cement the denormaliation, dehumanisation, and stigmatisation of people they clearly dislike in their own country and the rest of the world by working out how quickly they can ban smoking in cars and therefore smokers from Wales

One by one the bought and paid for junk scientists and self interest academics are crawling out of the woodwork to fire off separate but orchestrated press releases declaring smokers to be such child abusers that Govt needs to step in and stop them from doing what they often don't do in front of their kids in cars - smoking.

Yet they never produce this so called "research" and think that Govts should just listen to what they say without needing to see the proof of their bigoted lies which have simply one ideological aim - a smoke free world at any price because that is what they are being paid to achieve.

Of course if it could be demonstrably proved that smoking with the window open in a car will kill a child stone dead within a week, then Wales and the rest of the world would ban it now while making tobacco illegal, and not in three years time when they have had the chance to run their hate campaign against smokers to get the general public onside in further securing their marginalisation and criminalisation.

It's why it's against the law to stick a child in a car with the exhaust pipe running into it from a hose because that child will die within five minutes and that has been demonstrably proved without any doubts or need to wait. I know this is true because of sitting through one tragic court case of a "if I can't have them no will will" estranged father who meant to kill himself as well as his kids after splitting with his wife but he was found too early to finish the job.

He survived - just - they died and he was prosecuted for murder. Never have I seen anyone prosecuted for killing a child because of smoking a cigarette in their presence. Despite the made up figures, manipulated studies, probably carried out on the back of a health food packet, and science by maths instead of biology, generation after generation after generation after generation of children have survived the experience of smoking parents even in those days when almost everyone smoked.

What I find so offensive about this proposal is along the same lines that I found the Stony Stratford idea to ban smoking outside. It takes what is a minor problem and instead of working with smokers to allay the fears of smokerphobics, it jumps straight to legislation to further marginalise the smoker to put a smile on the faces of those who despise us.

It would seem that our protest in SS has had some effect as bigoted Bartlett has withdrawn his proposal for now. My guess is that he is to take instruction from the fraudulent and corrupt Pharma front group ASH before coming back with a stronger argument. They will probably buy off yet more junk scientists to make up some study to "prove" that walking past a smoker smoking or not is like being exposed to a nuclear fall out and then it will be all systems go. I am, however, encouraged by Gawain Towler's assessment of why Bartlett backed off.

We collection of individuals and groups that value liberty above prejudicial and unfounded fears of smokers have moved from being blog and keyboard warriors to real life activists. First there was my own humble small protest in Lincoln to highlight the issue of smokerphobia and why this issue is no longer about health but hate and then there was the great showing in our victorious stance in Stony.

We all agree that the line in the sand has been drawn and the car ban proposal for Wales described as the "next logical step" in the ideological war to eradicate tobacco and criminalise its consumers, is yet another step too far. We must make another stand.

The Fuel Injected Moose raised the idea of hiring a mini-bus for future peaceful demonstrations and it seemed a great idea to get us all over to Wales. Individually, many of us are too skint to travel around the UK for these things but perhaps as a collection of people in one unit we can chip in, get organised, and get over to the Welsh Assembly to deliver to its leaders the truth as researched in books like Velvet Glove, Iron Fist and Smokescreens. We can also make sure they hear our messages : Enough is Enough! and It's Not About Health! and We Deserve to Be Heard!

Perhaps we can remind this inward looking bunch, who think they are doing something great but are sleepwalking into fascist ideology, of the historical Welsh fight against oppression and remove the wool pulled over their eyes by the anti-smoker industry that relies on smoker persecution for its vastly wealthy living.

Let's not forget that the man who invented Smokerphobia Stanton Glanz has bragged continuously of how we smokers have paid for his big house, big car, and personalised number plate that reads along the lines of "Sue The Bastards".

Anyone who is serious about this fight must come along to Wales Next even though I accept that with our limited budgets, job commitments, and logistical difficulties, it's probably too soon to go along yet but we can get organised, we can pull something similar off from both the demos at Lincoln and Stony and we must make ourselves heard.

If this ban goes ahead in Wales it will come to the rest of the UK immediately afterwards and then it will come to our homes. Govts have no business telling anyone what to do with their own property or their own children and false concern for children's health is misplaced when it comes to the smoking issue. These resources should be used for very real issues that put children in danger and not to bolster an ideology that comes from a standpoint of hate.

I have no idea if I have any Welsh readers but if so, perhaps you could make yourselves known and also those who would be interested to come along and be involved with the organisation of such an event. All of that would a start and this is something that we really MUST do.

One final point is that the smokerphobics are also pushing the idea to Govts that smoking in cars causes non-existent traffic accidents. During 12 years of court reporting I only heard one case of a minor one car traffic accident which involved one stupid woman reaching down into the footwell of her car to reach for her cigs when she hit a lamp post. She was, however, over the drink drive limit as well.

I have never known of any other smoker involved in a car accident because of smoking. What the smokerphobics can't know is smoking while driving is more akin to breathing than reading, talking on a mobile phone, drinking or eating.

I have said many times that Govts who want the truth on smoking and ideas on how to address issues of concern around smoking should talk to smokers. We have far more knowledge than the smokerphobics and after decades of smoking we know more far more about it then they do. That is probably why the smokerphobics deny us a voice. We speak far too much common sense for their hateful tastes.

* One final point on the Stony Stratford Stand Off that I found interesting is that if the Police raised objections to the idea of denormalising Bartlett then why is the public health program to denormalise a minority group of people in this country legal?

My guess as always is that when it comes to smokers there is one rule for them and another for everyone else.

WE WERE HEARD

PHOTOS copyright Maureen Whisker



The rise of Smokerphobia, the need for informed health information as opposed to health propaganda, and the downright silly places where bans are being enforced were all highlighted during our protest in Lincoln today.

I've never taken part in a protest before so I didn't really know what to do or what to expect but I hoped that if I could straggle together a handful of people to stand by my side in unison then it was a job well done.

As it happened several more people came to lend their voice to the protest and I counted 14 of our own and two bystanders who joined in which made our number 16. That included the lady below who was pleased to "see something being done and said at last."



I pointed out that smoking my small hand rolled cigarette - which went out on me as I talked - couldn't be worse than the fumes coming out of buses or cars in the indoor station and mentioned the ridiculous claims being made in the name of "research" and "science" to push forward yet more restrictions on smokers in their own cars.



People readily accepted the hand outs and one lady I thought didn't want one insisted that she did. I had few resources but 40 information sheets as copied in the post below. They soon went.

One older gentleman came up to ask what it was all about. I highlighted that smokers sacked from jobs was one of my biggest concerns and the fact that there was no law to protect them from discrimination. It even seemed to be encouraged by this new public health stasi. I said it had all gone too far. We recognised that non-smokers were the majority, and therefore should have the majority of facilities, but, I said, we were still somebody and we should have somewhere. He appeared to agree and was reading the sheet as he walked away.

One of the protesters said a little old lady who looked about 90 told her well done for remembering that freedom of speech is important and wished us well with the event.

A couple of members of my local UKIP branch came to lend support. I'm very grateful for it and welcomed it but I wonder if politics and a cause mix on the same stage. However, Nigel Farage, UKIP leader, was due to hold a protest in Stony Stratford and this policy is one that is dear to the heart of UKIP members.

As I said, I'm not an experienced protester but it felt odd as I was wearing my campaign as opposed to my party allegiance hat on. One bystander appeared to shout abuse at our branch chairman but he transpired to be the only anti we met on the day.

I think he called security on us.



They were great, actually. They asked what we were doing and I explained about the protest and gave them a hand out. Lots of smoker bus drivers over on the other side of the bus station looked on with interest.

We were very peaceful and polite and tried not to get in anyone's way. The anti was taking photos of us as the security man explained that the bus station was owned by the council and we should have sought permission to use it in that way. He said for reasons of health and safety and blocking the public walk way we'd have to leave.

I apologised and said I didn't know but our protest was almost over anyway. Our hand outs were almost gone and we'd made our point. We stayed on about 10 minutes longer or so. They let us finish without further comment.

Even if we had sought permission from the City Council, the answer would have been no. The leader is smokerphobic and thinks we're merely addicts. He told me himself and I don't see any change in him.

Mr Anti marched over to one of the protestors and reminded him that the bus station was no smoking. The protester said he knew that. The anti told him to put his cigarette out. The protester said no. The anti marched off mumbling something about that was what he expected from "your sort".



And this little chap, or chapette, above wondered what all the fuss was about while he or she waited for his mistress who joined our protest.

We all then piled into Lincoln's greatest, best ever, Pub of the Year, The Jolly Brewer for a celebration at a job well done. We realised as we compared notes afterwards that almost no one minded and most comments made by passers-by were positive.

Huge thanks to everyone who came. There was a reporter from the local online newspaper the Lincolnite who did interviews. The Lincolnshire Echo didn't attend but then it is the weekend of the Waddington Air Show so I guess they were otherwise engaged.

Let's hope that by next year the balance is at least on it's way to being redressed and then maybe we won't have to do it again. If not, I hope even more people will come along and join in to make their voice heard and question whether this is really about health or not.

* One final point is that my info sheet contained a warning that the black market was now rife and accessible to children because of over regulation of adults who smoke and the eye-wateringly high taxes on the legal product.

That was also demonstrated today by a dodgy looking man with a bag who offered baccy - two for a tenner. I asked where it came from. He said France. I asked if he bought it. He said no, his brother in law did on holiday. I was highly suspect of it and we all told him we weren't interested.

One of the protesters said the same man is in town most days selling his wares. I should have asked him that if approached if he asks children to produce identification that they are over 18 but in flash he was gone.

PRE ELECTION HUSTINGS DEBATE

Oh dear. My photography skills are getting no better but these are the Lincoln City Council candidates who took part in the TUC against Cuts' hustings held in the city last night with the chairman sitting second from right, next to UKIP Birchwood candidate Tony Wells.

The chap at the end from the TUC against cuts spoke about nationalising everything, having more public sector workers, and cutting nothing. The lady next to him for the Greens used all the words and phrases that confound and annoy me like "Transition Town, Resilience," and of course "Diversity and Sustainability".

Both ideologies scared me because, in my opinion, too many public sector workers leads to further loss of individual freedom through over bureaucratisation, regulation, enforcement, criminalisation, and ultimately Sovietisation of the public whose lives they are meant to improve. I felt the Green's view was idealistic and not realistic and even if we all moved towards this fluffy environmentalists' view, it would be too costly and too exclusive of those who couldn't afford it.

They all ridiculed genuine UKIP concerns about the undemocratic EU influence and control over our economic and social policies and every day lives. The Human Rights Act came up but I never got to say that I was against it because of how it discriminates against who can have rights and who can't. As humans, we are all entitled to that right at birth. A lengthy and costly piece of paper, interpreted variously by different judges in different courts, doesn't prevent abuses of that birth right.

I also had a view on prisoner voting rights which I didn't get to put forward. On that one I'm torn. Nick Hogan was a political prisoner and I can see how denying prisoners votes could be abused by the state. However, when I think of those prisoners that I've seen go through courts after having done some of the worst kind of degradation and humiliation to other human beings, I'm drawn to denying them the rights their victims have been denied by their direct action.

The panel and audience stopped short of calling us racist or little englanders although the socialist used the word to describe the Daily Express. The Green lady pontificated about how the country was very insular before joining the EU. How Nationalism - or being proud of your own culture - was wrong and how we needed membership of the EU to be more integrated with European cultures and respect them more.

She didn't mention that we had the Common Wealth long before we had the EU and since our inception as a Nation we have always integrated, adapted to new cultures from Saxon to Norman, to Dane and Asian to the myriad of cultures that we respect in Britain today without the EU telling us how to - and creating the paperwork to go with it.

I also found it patronising as the daughter of an Italian who taught me to love Europe. I am anti EU because I love the diversity of different European nations and I fear that under the EU they will become one converged blob of blandness with miserable citizens being told how to be "happy" - with the relevant paperwork of course. The EU is just the middle man between Britain and her friends and neighbours in Europe and we don't need it.

Tony Wells came across as the most mature, practical, common sense and logical to me but then he probably would as we stand for the same Party. I agreed mostly with what he said. The audience was mostly hostile but then that was expected as they were made up of about 20 mostly young left wing students and public sector workers.

I went to give Tony support and add a bit of balance to the debates. My throat was dry and my voice was shaky but I hope that what I said came across comprehensibly. My other half - who tends to chunter on but won't get involved in politics - even had his say and quite enjoyed it.

The event was held in a local church hall. I don't know why the LibLabCon wasn't there but maybe it's representatives didn't think the public that important if it was only worth a potential handful of votes.

I'd promised to give one of the organisers a copy of my book about the working class riots in 1911. He was rolling a fag as I approached and so I thought I'd make him aware of our campaign. He didn't feel denormalised as a smoker but he certainly didn't want to be.

I was still in a bad mood after having a row with my other half in the car over a traffic issue so I may have ranted on a bit, and, well, everyone knows that once I get started on that issue ...

My other half has forthright views and swears but not as much as Obnoxio because it's the language that he knows and expresses himself in best. He was accused of being "aggressive" and "offensive" because he used the word "shit" in a church.

I think that today we can get too upset and offended when in heated debate but the answer is not to cry foul but throw back.

Angela Eaglen felt patronised in Parliament but she'd have come out of the spat with Cameron with more public respect if she had retaliated and put him in his place with a few well chosen words. Just imagine what Margaret Thatcher would have said and probably did when she entered the male dominated world of her chosen profession. Women who hide behind their gender are doing none of us any favours.

As for the Lincoln Hustings, the TUC against Cuts did a sterling job of organisation and I really enjoyed it. It was thought provoking, confidence building, and great experience. Perhaps our branch should set up the next one.

Some of the local candidates including yours truly were featured in the local paper today.

It'll be interesting to see what happens on May 5th.