HIGHWAY ROBBERY AT TAXI FIRM

The anti-smoking law is proving to be a nice little earner for the Treasury with various fines and penalties imposed since it's introduction more than two years ago but this week saw the first in one Lincolnshire district.

A taxi firm owner in Sleaford and North Hykeham was fined for "letting" a woman smoke in his own office. The report in today's Lincolnshire Echo has a quote from yours truly who, I'm pleased to say, was asked for a response to this case by the reporter Philippa Stewart. I reckon it is still quite one-sided but at least there is, this time, a touch of balance.

I was also encouraged to see that I'm not the only one who feels that Lincoln deserves better than St Gillian of Merron as an MP - as you can read below from a cutting taken from the Echo's letter page. Not related to the piece, but I've also included the Echo's Quotes of the Day, which I felt were quite appropriate.

Further in the paper, not copied here, is a report on a smoker of 25 years who is quitting with the pharmaceutical aid Champix. I wonder if he knows of the major health risks asociated with that particular drug?

ST GILLIAN DOESN'T DESERVE OUR VOTE

St Gillian of Merron, my local MP, and the state health persecutor, has talked here of the new anti-smoking kit which aims to morally blackmail smokers into quitting by using children as human shields again. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8428998.stm

I might take this sort of propaganda a bit more kindly if I didn't know that sanctimonious Merron only represents smokers who have quit or want to quit.

She made it quite clear that she does not care nor represent smokers that don't want to quit in a parliamentary answer to the question of whether she would support an amendment to the cruel, unusual and blanket discriminatory smoking ban.

Her response was that she had a duty to help only those people who want to quit.

Lincolnians - Merron doesn't care about you if you smoke, if you're fat, if you drink more than 3 units of alcohol a day. Do not vote for her. She doesn't deserve your support until she starts listening to what you have to say and starts to treat you as fellow human beings and not outcasts.

I am trying to organise a protest in St Gillian's constituency. Anyone want to join me? Email for more information if you do.

COUNCIL AND MP LET DOWN LINCOLN

Lincoln City Council - oops - the authority prefers the pretentious title of City Of Lincoln Council these days - has turned down an offer of a share of £180 million to build new council houses because it hasn't got the "resources" to make a bid for the money.

I'm assuming it means it can't afford the staff to make the calls, do the research, and fill in the form.

Shame. Lincoln is desperate for social housing and probably more than these http://www.lincolnshire.nhs.uk/your-health/Health-Trainers/Local-Health-Trainers/ http://tmf.lincoln.gov.uk/servedoc.asp?filename=item_3___Health_Trainers.pdf staff who have been heaped upon the city because the money was given to the council by the PCT health quango. Common sense tells me that maybe these city health trainers could be moved over to do something far more useful with their time and ultimately our money but Govt bureaucracy wouldn't allow it.

I know for sure that if you talk to families on the poorest estates in Lincoln, they will say they would much prefer to have housing for those who desperately need it rather than making sure the homeless eat their five a day and don't smoke, of course.

Then again, if The City Of Lincoln Council is really struggling to provide the resources to make this much needed bid, then maybe these kids can help them out as they did before http://www.lincoln.gov.uk/news_det.asp?art_id=12909&sec_id=3175... or maybe you have to be a health zealot these days to get any Govt money.

St Gillian of Merron, Lincoln's sanctimonious MP, really should get out more as I suggested on a previous post. If she she did, she would actually find out that the people she is expecting to vote for her again would prefer an assurance that they will have homes in future, and not fruit, and they will have shops and businesses, and not a tobacco display ban when there is no evidence that this does anything other than persecute private business because of personal ideology and bigotry.

For the good of our City of Lincoln, she must go, health quangos must go, and we must start getting our priorities right or the council staff themselves must go. We do not pay taxes just to employ staff. We are supposed to pay for a service - where is it!

Photo of Lincoln Cathedral taken from http://movementbureau.blogs.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/05/22/lincoln_cathedral.gif