Dave Atherton from Freedom to Choose was invited to debate the smoking issue with head ASH harridan Debs Arnott and I know who came out as the reasonable one.
Debs did her usual trick of trying to discredit the opposition and dismissed Dave as "not an expert" but then Debs herself hasn't got a degree in Epidemiology either but I wouldn't be surprised if she has one in the dark art of spin AKA professional lying.
It was quite a sad event to see her desperately pumping out old propaganda on Japanee housewives which Dave discredited in an instant because he is well informed and he does his research.
You see smokerphobes like Debs will never know the truth about smoking because my guess is that she's never done it or she's one of these former part time, temporary smokers who had a go, didn't like it, quit and then began to moralise about others who chose to continue - or she's the sort who was bullied into quitting and thinks that now gives her the right to shove other people around.
I've had my share of anti-smokers telling me they know better than I do about the effects of smoking despite my 43 years experience of active smoking from childhood, smoking when pregnant, and being a baby born from a smoker's womb. But they are still arrogant enough to think they know better.
For two days I've been given a right verbal kicking, hounded and insulted, debating with antis who just get more and more bizarre each time with new and wonderful health scare inventions.
They really do believe that tobacco is as dangerous as the fall out from Chernobyl but this fear is born from a phobia and not scientific investigation. I really think they need psychological help. I never expected that care in the community would mean the nutters making public policy even when no one has elected them to do it.
Dave says on his Facebook page that he has always been a polite smoker. I used to be that but now the law dictates where I can and can't smoke, I'm afraid the gloves are off. I am as nasty as those who are nasty to me. You can't debate with these people because their minds are poisoned.
I don't want this fight but they started it by forcing me into a position of self defence. They have caused the biggest ever social division in this country than I have ever seen in my lifetime.
They have given bigots a group of people they can legally hate. One dickhead on the Echo debate even said banning smokers from employment was a good thing. "It'll make them stop" he said even though I pointed out that it would make them starve. He thought that was hilarious and then they wonder why we get so angry.
Debs says in the CNN interview that smokers have no rights and we are second class citizens. I wonder if that is what Govt is paying her for. I've said before this Govt is corrupt. Debs has proved it. Any Govt that gets into bed with that bigoted hag is not looking at the issue in the round but being fed nonsense that it swallows either because our leaders are stupid or because they hate smokers too.
In any debate on this issue, the only fair outcome and the bottom line is choice. Choice for smokers to meet other smokers and socialise in peace without harassment and choice for non-smokers who don't like being around smokers. Most don't care and enjoy smokers' company because they have not been taught yet to hate us. Anti-smokers are a different breed who design new ways to punish us. They deserve an island to themselves away from decent people.
They drive their car, take planes, abuse our environment how they will and then moan about how ONLY tobacco is a health risk and everything they do is fine. They make judgements on people who smoke - filthy, dirty, selfish, addicts - and yet they know nothing of any of us, how much we smoke, where, when, or even why, and what we teach our children about smoking. They are convinced that as soon as a baby pops it's head out of the womb, a smoker will pop a fag in its gob and light it up.
And those heroines who take control of their own bodies and children from the fanatical clutches of the anti-smoking industry are simply and unfairly thrown to the media dogs.
Leg Iron's post also shows how it is only the anti-smokers who keep smoking in the public eye - perhaps they really want a new generation to despise because where would they be without the hate of a selective group that brings them so much comfort?
During my debates on forums yesterday and today, one anti was arrogant enough to say : "All smokers want to quit. Those who say they do not are lying."
Another said we have no rights and yet I would argue that the anti-smokers right to this mythical "clean air" ends where our right to association begins.
Then there are those we've never met who insist they are only trying to protect us from ourselves and want to help us. Why? That is not their aim. Worst still is when they try and tell us what we should or shouldn't do with our own families. To use their twee and infantile phrase I say : "butt out" of our business.
Hopefully, Dave's exposure of horrid little bigot Arnott in public is the first step back to normality, common sense and what we want - a life in peace free from harassment where we can socialise a million miles away from people like Debs who take hate as their guide, lies as their evidence, and profit as their reward.
Dave has shown the wider public that smokers - especially lifelong smokers - know better than anyone about smoking especially those who have never smoked.
Debs on the other hand came across as desperate, scared, and like a rabbit caught in headlights. One must ask if Govt backs her stance that we are second class citizens.
I'm sure whatever we say Debs will just schream and schream until she's sthick before running off to tell tales to her friends Mr Lansley and Nanny Milton to sort out the nasty smokers who won't play her game and accept their own Denormalisation.
That woman needs to get a life and stop scrounging tax payers money for her living. She's worse than a benefit fraudster because she takes far more than she deserves by lying her way to the bank.
I do so hope her days are numbered but we will have to wait and see how corrupt this NuGovt is.
I can't embed the video code but Dave's CNN interview is here Enjoy