Wednesday, July 20, 2011

A TOWN LISTENS AND ACTS



It seems that following the protests of residents in Stony Stratford against the bigoted councillor Bartlett's plan to ban smoking outdoors the town actually took notice and rejected his preposterous idea

According to the About My Area blog : When it became apparent that nobody was prepared to second Councillor Bartlett's proposals, there were calls from some members of the public for him to also withdraw the proposal that had been moved to the 20th September. Other people were calling on Councillor Bartlett to resign from his position on the Town Council. The Town Council listened to the people and the businesses of Stony Stratford and then dealt with Councillor Bartlett's proposals accordingly.

They were unanimously rejected but for two people - which was Bartlett and one other - and the town demonstrated democracy in action as opposed to public health bullying of the electorate. Our national Govt would do well to take a leaf out of SS Town Council's book and actually listen to what the majority want - fairness for both sides - as opposed to pandering to the phobias of the minority to want smokers criminalised.

I have been saying for ages that this is no longer about health but ideology and the eradication of smoking by any means even if it means criminalising the adult consumer of this legal product.

That has now been confirmed by the woman in the linked radio interview on calls for more smoking bans in public outdoor places.

The woman from Derbyshire's Stop Smoking "service" says it's a matter of not allowing children to SEE smokers. Simon Clark at Forest reasonably put her in her place but sadly our Govt and it's Neo-Nazi health Dept agrees with these smokerphobics.

That's why the protest at Stony Stratford and its victory is so important. Govt and councils must be made to see that working against smokers is working against the wishes of the public they are supposed to serve.

All of us accept reasonable restrictions to stop youth and child smoking but the oppression of the restrictions introduced since 2007 have put back any good work done on that front. Kids can now get unregulated, uncontrolled, and dangerously mixed tobacco from the black market and everything the righteous do now helps to make that market more and more viable and profitable. Man with a bag is certainly in my home town and we know that in Ireland there have been cases of children used as runners to sell dodgy tobacco door to door. The blame for this lies squarely with the anti-smoker industry that cares more about its own profits, funding and the enforcement of its ideology than children and health.