WHO IS UP FOR WALES?

I've enjoyed the last couple of posts on the Pro-choice smoking doctor's site.

And I agree with Blad Tolsty's view in the comments on SimonClark's post about Snipergate that considerate and normally compliant smokers are getting fed up to the point of activism.

Blad also mentions the impending car ban for Wales and why it's important that we keep the pressure on in letting our servants in Govts know that enough is enough. He says :

What we are seeing happening here is very interesting, in that, the number of people prepared to put their protest into action is increasing significantly. Stony Stratford was another instance of this militancy. However, what I am getting at is that a clear course of action is emerging for us so long as we don't become apathetic again.

In 2004/2005/2006, when the protests about the proposed smoking ban were taking place in Scotland, and Wales as well as the protests to the House of Commons and House of Lords, there were very few people taking part. In fact, a number of the people I was working with were Americans. Now, however, the picture is changing and it is only by lots of people undertaking such actions as I have described, that all sorts of minorities and social groups have been able to make their presence felt. I wonder too, if there had been a current level of action as to whether the smoking ban would have been made law in the first place.

Having said all that, the current proposal in Wales to ban smoking in cars carrying in children, does represent another and rather sinister step forward for the anti smoking lobby. I think that most of us are agreed that if such a ban is implemented, it is only a matter of time before the next step is proposed which will be to interfere in what people do in their own homes.

Leaving aside the fact that plenty of data manipulation has occurred to make a car ban seem a decent proposition to MPs, what carefully structured course of action should be taken by us (provided the numbers are willing to take part) to fight the car ban?

I think the first thing we must organise is a mini-bus or two to pick people on route from the north and south to take them to Wales and I suggest outside this office
ASH Wales
2nd Floor
8 Museum Place
Cardiff
CF10 3BG
might be a good place to hold it bearing in mind that ASH Wales claims to speak for smokers and has made up figures yet again to falsify concern when there is none among anyone other than the tiny minority of smokerphobics who ASH does represent.

What we need is a good organisation leader who can direct this and funding for the two minibuses. Perhaps enough of us can pitch in donations to pay for them. I would suggest that Simon Clark at Forest or Dick Puddlecote would be ideal organisers but I reckon Simon might be wary because of ASH's accusation about "dirty tobacco money" and DP is a very busy man who gives more than enough of his free time to this cause already.

However, I am sure it can be done and we can do it - perhaps our friends in Wales can instigate it. Unless ASH Wales bullies politicians through it's endless onslaught of science and lies by press release, we have up to three years to sort this out but the sooner we counteract ASH's false claims, the sooner the Welsh Assembly will realise that they do not speak for us and they speak with fork tongue.

I am also grateful to the Pro-choice smoking doctor for finding this site. I wonder if they think tobacco control puppet Anne Milton is any more interesting these days given her stance on the TC Third Reich.

ENVIRONMENTALIST HYPOCRISY

Believe me, there are not many reasons why I would post up a photo here of me when I was 19 except to make a point and no, it's not that I've aged 40 years faster than I should have done because I'm a smoker.

It is to show how environmentalists don't really give a damn about the environment when there is money to be made and the hypocrisy of those who scream "green" but wouldn't for a minute think of travelling in anything else but their own car.

This is a thought that came to me during a recent trip to North Wales where I lived between 1977 and 1986. I hadn't been back to the area since I left - except for two funerals and that's another story - and so I was dismayed to see the changes there were not for the better.

There used to be one road running along the North Wales coast and a very slow and traffic jammed road it was even though back then there weren't that many cars. For years there was talk of a new road to ease this congestion and when I visited a couple of weeks ago, the road was complete.

Conwy was one of the places I lived and so my other half and I decided to take a walk along the harbour that I remembered had a beautiful sandy beach. Indeed, you can even see it where I stand in the photo but compare that with the new harbour. You will see that an ugly digger has taken up permanent residence there and spends all day piling up filthy smelly mud up into banks. Awful.

My friend, who I went to see for her birthday, told me that the problems started with the new road. She said they had to dig a tunnel under the harbour for the road and local people had insisted it would ruin the environment. However, the (no doubt well paid) surveyor insisted this local knowledge was poppycock and no harm would be done.

As you can see from the two photos, much harm has indeed been done because the tunnel sends all the silt and shite up to the beach and Conwy's beautiful harbour will never be the same again. It really made me angry. Also the proud fishing industry that has employed generations of families in the area has died - thanks to the EU regs on fishing.

I also took a trip to Llanfairfechan. The gem of North Wales, it used to be called. I found this once bustling seaside town, dominated by Penmaenmawr mountain, like a ghost town. It's fair to say that I tried to book accommodation at a local guest house there and it was full but there were plenty of others that's weren't at such short notice. My friend told me that both Llanfair and Pen have suffered badly because of the new road which now takes passing trade away.

Not all progress is good but try telling the modernists and the green brigade. They are so obsessed with the new agenda, they really can't see the damage they have done.