SMOKERPHOBICS WILL NEVER GET IT

Frank Davis's scrape with a smokerphobic has led to a debate in his comments on how the propaganda has perverted figures to steer people away from tobacco and those who choose to consume it.

Frank wonders if all vapers are like the bigot he bumped into but most of those I have met have bigger minds and can see the bigger picture. They defend our right to enjoy the natural product because once we're gone, they know they'll be next on the hit- list.

They also challenge the junk science on smoking because they know that soon the scientific cannons will be pointed at them. Some like Mr Bigot will never get it and that's the tragedy. All those of different lifestyles should stand together or they will pick us off one by one in this public health social engineering project.

They don't want smoking in future of any kind, and they don't want any evidence that it existed in the past. Eradication of all forms of smoking - shisha, cigarette, pipe, e-cig, cigar - is the ultimate aim. Useful idiots like Mr Bigot will help get them there faster.

The reason I don't believe this plucked from the air figure of several hundred thousands of deaths from smoking is because I haven't seen such deaths among my own generation of smokers. That's not to say that I don't believe active smoking can be harmful but I get more sceptic about the alleged "harm" it causes as each new day brings something new that smoking causes including dandruff. The health message gets more and more ridiculous and bizarre.

Meanwhile they don't explain why smokers I know from my generation are not dead? Even doctors say they don't understand why only 15% of smokers die of lung disease while others can live to a long life.

How many friends from my generation have died over the last few decades have been on my mind a lot lately after another died in a motorbike accident last week. He isn't the first in our circle lost through either a bike or a car accident.

I didn't know him well but a sudden death does rather focus your mind on how many people you have lost in your own life. There are those friends who committed suicide - one because he had a gambling problem he couldn't control and it was destroying his life, and another because the tax man was about to break him - and one friend died before he was 30 from leukaemia, another fell off a mountain while walking, another from a horse.

Within the last decade I've heard of too many who have fallen to heroin and died from overdoses. We had a bad heroin epidemic here in the late 90s and early 00s. Just imagine what they could have done to socially engineer people away from heroin rather than spending cash playing down its dangers by equating it with smoking.

Too many smokers from my generation have died before their time but none of them from cancer, a smoking related respiratory illness, or a heart problem. Sadly they have succumbed to living with all of its risk factors.

I WOULDN'T EVEN GO THERE TO DIE

I was chatting to an old friend the other day who told me an interesting piece of news that I didn't know before.

She said a friend of hers went for a job at a Travelodge and part of his training programme was how to deal with a dead body. Apparently the company is a first choice for those looking to kill themselves and they have across the UK two suicides week to deal with so it's important that staff know what to do in such circumstances.

I don't say it's true because I can't find any links to support it other than this one from a regular visitor who seems to be aware if it but then I guess it's something that Travelodge would want to keep quiet. I mean, who would want to stay there knowing the previous body in the same bed was dead?

I used to stay at Travelodges quite a lot because they were cheap and convenient and always set aside rooms for smokers and non-smokers. I last visited in 2007 soon after the smoking ban came out on a trip to Newcastle.

I booked before July 2007 for a stay after July 1 and had the option to book a smoking room which I did. On arrival, however, I found that the company had decided to enforce the smoke-free law even though they had the choice as some hotels still exercise.

We arrived very late. My son was 13. I was told that smoking was no longer allowed and I complained that I had only booked because smoking was advertised as permitted.

"Not any more," the disinterested desk receptionist said.

I pushed forward my point that it was wrong to advertsise a service which was then withdrawn without any notifiation and had I been notified of the change, I might well have decided to book elsewhere.

"Feel free to leave and find somewhere else then," she replied rather rudely.

At that late hour it wasn't feasible to take a child on the round of various hotels at the dead of night and so I had no choice but I've never stayed there since. I was also encouraged that as we got closer to the shit bag room we were given, there was a smell of smoke in the corridor so others had obviously decided to ignore her.

I am sure that if I did want to commit suicide a last fag would be one of the things I'd want so even as a place of death, Travelodge falls short in its service.

Another friend once told me that he had contemplated suicide and rather than just take one single cigarette to smoke in his car, he decided to do it the proper way and put a pipe from his exhaust into the car. He had a last smoke which gave him the time to reconsider his decision. He later told me that if anyone thinking of suicide just took those extra few minutes to think it through carefully, as his smoke allowed him to do, then there would less self inflicted deaths.

As a result of this, Travelodge might want to rethink it's policy of banning smokers from staying at its hotels. It might cost the firm a lot less in the long run and make for a much more pleasant working environment for its staff.

QUITTING CAN KILL TOO

While Pfizer encourages relatives, friends, and colleagues of smokers to bully them into quitting for their own good it doesn't shout so loudly about how its product Champix can kill those they care about

Despite this danger, and world wide awareness of it, the Australian government paid for 368,924 prescriptions in January and maybe doesn't mind how many people of that number it has sentenced to death in the long term aim to rid the country of smoking and smokers by any means.

This is the same Govt which intends to criminalise smokers in their own homes and is going all out to make their lives miserable as it hurtles towards the final solution.

Hounding them out of society, marginalising them, making people fear and hate them, is all for their own good and that of others, based on the Govt's pompous, naive, misled and ill-informed desire to believe what it has been force fed by self interest charities in coalition with their funders in Big Pharma companies.

The latest authoritative study confirms all previous studies that show PASSIVE SMOKE KILLS NO ONE and is no more than an irritant to overly sensitive people and certainly not to neighbours in apartment blocks who are frankly lying if they say it is.

The scientists say :

“Among never smokers in our population, we observed no association between either exposure to ETS at home or at the workplace and lung cancer risk (Table 2). In general, the effect estimates for ETS exposure were similar between the total population and only among never smokers.”

The only truth about smoking is that The Lie hurts smokers and those around them when the health truth is not that clear cut. Govts should not be taking sides on the issue because it is backing prejudice and tyranny with unreasonable and unnecessary smoking bans and restrictions tailored to punish a minority who don't want to quit enjoying a legal product.

Some smokers die young but most live to old age and some even to ripe old age as centenarians. Big Pharma and self interest anti-smoker charities say smokers are weaklings who can barely breathe never mind run and yet the real life anecdotal evidence always seem to prove something different.

Luckily the smoker runner linked above hasn't had any bad side effects from Champix but I know - as someone who likes to run but not in a competitive sense - that I'd much prefer to smoke a natural product moderately than take a man-made chemical alternative which has a shady reputation.

Quitting is better done without any Pharma quit aid. It will make smokers, their relatives, friends and colleagues believe that smokers are addicts and that products are the cure because Big P wants money and lots of profit. If it was true that tobacco is addictive, and passive smoking is harmful, then everyone would be smokers today and not less than in any other age.

All smokers need is to want to stop smoking and the rest is easy An age-old truth that still stands up to scrutiny.

JOE BROWN ROCKS

The post below is a quick write up of an interview I did with the legendary Joe Brown which was posted rather hastily just before I dashed out to watch his live show.

It was supposed to have appeared in the paper that I'm currently contracted to but for various reasons such as working across two offices, staff shortages, pressing deadlines, and space, it never got written up in time or used online when it was submitted.

I was disappointed because I'd wanted to do a good job and show the reader just what a lovely down to earth bloke Joe is. I immediately warmed to him when he told me he was a "fellow leper" although I didn't discuss my lifestyle politics with him because it would have been "inappropriate" given the circumstances and I didn't think he would be that interested. Music is his greatest love and that was obviously evident when he played and the interview was about him not me.

I did, however, print off a copy of the interview from this blog and asked for it to be delivered to him. I hope he got it and I hope he liked it but judging from something he'd said, I guessed he wasn't a great computer fan.

We had a very nice chat and he said he'd enjoyed the interview with me and then invited me to get tickets for the show from his agent so I couldn't possibly refuse.

Try as I might I couldn't remember one Joe brown song although I knew he was an artist with an illustrious career behind him. At his concert in Skeg last Thursday evening, it all came back to me but more than that I realised he was one of the true greats and probably vastly under rated as a musician and song writer and better known as an all round entertainer.

Joe ceratinly knows how to put on a great show. It is very much a relationship between his music, his personality and an audience that has grown up with him. He did tell me that the older generation probably drag the younger ones along with them but they enjoy the concert so much that they tend to return on their own accord because they enjoyed it so much.

I know now what he meant because as one of the relatively young 'uns, I had what was the best time I've had in years.

Joe appeared with a great backing band which included his immensely talented son Pete who is also a record producer. Joe was obviously very proud of him and he had good reason to be.

The show began with the roots of Joe's music - a tribute to Skiffle and the legendary Lonnie Donnegan.

The first half was an intimate affair and musical feast with Joe and the band seated under a spotlight and playing old songs including a 1930s piece from Hawaii, drummer Phil Capaldi’s softer rendition of the Elvis Presley track Mystery Train, and Joe’s cover of Chris Smither’s Leave the Light On. A gentle and acoustic ballad that kept the audience transfixed as he plucked skillfully on an acoustic guitar.

There were 12 guitars lined up around Joe and his band, plus a Ukulele that was brought out from backstage each time it was required, in all shapes and sizes, all gleaming and all obviously well loved. Joe made particular mention of a new guitar he was given by Danny Harrison, former Beatle George’s son. It was a replica of one owned by Eddie Cochrane. “It has the same cigarette burns, and rusty pick as when he played it,” Joe joked. Comedy that made the audience belly laugh was peppered throughout the show.

Pete did a brilliant version of Crosby Stills Nash and Young’s "Helpless". A natural guitar player, he made that thing weep in harmony to his gritty voice which had the depth of a harderned rocker. Pete’s influence on his father’s music means that new sounds have been introduced to the shows and appear on Joe's latest album. As the second half got underway, Joe did a cover and new arrangement of U2’s "I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For" and it got the audience jigging in their seat. Fantastic.

Joe then launched into some of his own hits for nostalgia value including "Picture of You", "Henery VIII I am" and "Sea of Heartache". I was bowled over by a charming instrumental Italian wedding waltz.

The veteran performer has been at the top of his game for 50 years. He is one of the nicest people in the music industry and one of the most talented musicians around. He doesn’t so much play and sing as live and breathe through the fun of his music and the interaction with the audience.

Joe has a few more dates on this tour and I heartily recommend you catch his show when it comes to your town. If you didn’t manage to see him at Skegness, then check out his tour dates HERE and do yourself a favour. You will so glad that you did and you’ll be smiling for a good long time after Joe has moved on.

I tried to find a link to Joe's U2 cover but couldn't find one so instead for your pleasure, "Sea of Heartache" is posted below. Enjoy.



A final point of interest to those of you who come here to find news and views on the smoking issue, during the half time break I stood outside with a handful of smokers and listened as one man told his friend that almost everyone he knows has quit. The friend with him said he was on his last packet. Thanks to the Govt's latest assault on the poor, it is only the rich and privileged that can now afford to pay the high tax on their cigarettes. Those who can't afford to smoke, and those who can't afford to go abroad to buy cheaper tobacco, simply have no choice.

And a final point of interest about Joe is that he is the only Cockney to be born in Lincolnshire - a village called Swaby which in 2001 had a population of 111. His mum and dad moved to the East End of London when Joe was 2 to run a pub.

ELECTRO FAG REVIEW

When I first heard about E Cigs I immediately feared they would be a threat to the smoking culture because if they became popular then smokers would probably be forced to use them. I'll admit I've been a prig about them in the past

It is such unfounded fear that often causes such prejudice and I moan enough about how that affects smokers socially these days. Bloggers that I admire have spoken of how the electrofag can be a useful addition to smoking tobacco and so I opened my mind, changed my view, and grabbed the chance to try them when it came.

I met Cliff Ditchfield my local supplier who advertises on Facebook and he popped into work today with an E Cig kit.

I thought it would be a complicated thing but it's very easy to set up and you end up with a proper looking cigarette that can legally be smoked in public places. The end lights up when you draw on it and nicotine vapours come out. Nictotine is optional. You charge up the cigarette like a mobile phone when you need to.

There's a lot for £17.50 (£2.50 P&P) a pack. It's either one E Cig or one pack of E Cigs that equates to a pack of 200. I've always been crap at maths but either way it's a definite bargain.

I know I won't be able to smoke tobacco when I board the boat for my latest UK Tobacco tax resistance trip and so an electrofag will come in handy.

I was bored senseless during the 12 - 14 hour journey last time I took a boat and that's when I most want to smoke. It is not about "addiction" because I can travel without the need to smoke if I'm entertained enough. The cabaret scenario of the ship just doesn't appeal. I might watch a film that'll take up a couple of hours, but I will get fed up of the constant round of visiting the cafe, bar, and any other eaterie or pub onboard. I'll also miss that last reflective cigarette at bedtime so electrofag will come in handy then.

I can also use it at other times. I'm really looking forward to getting it out in Starbuck's and horrifying the management in my local Tesco's cafe. Both places carried offensive anti-smoker signs when we had choice before the anti-smoker ban came in.

I hear there are moves to try and ban the electrofag. I think it's because the puritans don't want to see anyone smoking in future. They don't just want to eradicate tobacco use but the whole culture that surrounds it. For all of the reasons above, I now see E Cigs as an enhancement to the smoking culture.

They are a great toy but they could never replace the real thing for me as a dedicated, lifelong smoker of 43 years from childhood. I smoke because I like the taste of tobacco, and, actually, particular types. Cliff's E Cigs have a cigarette tobacco taste like Lambert and Butler. He also has menthol. I've never taken to those. It's like smoking chewing gum to me. Perhaps by my next order he will stock something more like Golden Virginia or some other light shag taste.

I tasted nicotine in the electrofag and I got the sense of the smoke with the vaper that came out when I exhaled. But what I missed was that hit in the back of the throat, the one that sometimes makes me cough, after lighting a hand rolled cigarette without a filter fresh from the pouch.

The first experience was a bit like ordering a bacon sandwich and getting one with cold ham instead. I missed being able to stub it out. I missed the smell. I missed watching it burn down. I just stopped smoking it after a while. It seemed a bit dry and it felt a bit medical in taste. I neither enjoyed nor didn't enjoy it.

I would use it again but I would never stop smoking tobacco and certainly not for reasons of health until at least some unbiased research is done to show what the effects would be on some one like me. At present I feel it would be more dangerous to quit and better to continue to smoke moderately.

Those who want to quit would find E Cigs ideal and, from what I've heard, a better alternative to NRT because they more accurately mimic the smoking culture and can replace the habit of smoking.

A lady I work with immediately put in an order when Cliff came in because she wants to quit what she says is a habit and not an addiction. She misses a smoke most with a cup of tea. There is some family pressure but she's come to the decision to quit herself. Some smokers simply get fed up of smoking after a while.

* The unhappiness this continual attack on the smoking culture has made people since the smoking ban is crafted here By Dick Puddlecote. As usual, it's well worth a read and focuses on a recent study that shows most people have been as miserable as sin since July 2007.

TEA - NECTAR OF LIFE

Nothing goes better together in my opinion than a cup of tea and a cigarette and the Japanese proverb below about tea could easily be true of tobacco also.

If man has no tea in him, he is incapable of understanding truth and beauty.

For more lyrical descriptions of the nectar of life see HERE

Having just had a cup of tea and fag with daughter No 3 and grandaughter No 1, I can say that there is nothing better than compnay while smoking and drinking.

Grandaughter No 1 at four years old doesn't mind her mother and grandmother smoking in the least but she did moan a lot when a dirty bus spewing filth from the exhaust made her choke as we walked down the street.

She loves a nice cuppa tea too but then my children have intellect, taste and fair minds and all understand truth and beauty.

HELP US FIGHT DENORMALISATION

I haven't heard if any smoke-free quangos have been axed in the public spending cuts and bearing in mind the multi agencies have already had half a billion pounds off us in five years, then I would have thought it would be ripe for plucking.

Imagine what much needed public services could be saved if we stopped giving almost £1 million to ASH Scotland - an organisation that couldn't survive without Govt funding because the general public does not support it.

Certainly Simon Clark at Taking Liberties makes a sound, reasonable and common sense argument for trimming costs at ASH Scotland which has come up with 33 more torturing ways to finally deal with the problem of smokers.

They have the hate crime denormalisation to cause us to be shunned and avoided by our friends, neighbours, and employers even though they know the aim of denormalisation is to create hate and shame.

This explanation from a poster in the comments section on Simon's post shows they really mean business. Smokers must quit or they will be legally discriminated against and hate against them will be legally backed up with Govt funds to public health.

Tobacco Denormalization and Stigma

"In fact, many tobacco denormalization programs tend to embrace the stigmatization of smokers as a public health tool.

Stigma is achieved through a moralization of smoking. For instance, public education campaigns on the adverse health outcomes of smoking paints those who smoke as engaging in morally reprehensible behaviour.

The philosopher Martha Nussbaum, for instance, has argued that humiliating or dehumanizing the victim is “central” for stigma to be enacted, and, following Goffman, the stigmatized person has to recognize this humiliation (spoiled identity) as a reality.

Such an effort at manipulating the mores of society has clear implications for persons living with psychiatric illness. As UBC‘s Kirsten Bell and colleagues notice, “denormalization policies have the effect of sanctioning stigma implicitly directed towards a particular segment of the population: the segment with the least ability and/or willingness to quit”

Interestingly, denomalization programs are antithetical to public health efforts which are focused on eradicating stigma – particularly around eliminating negative public perceptions of people who use illicit drugs.

However advocates such as Bayer argue that the burden of stigmatizing denormalization policies imposed on vulnerable populations (e.g., individuals living with psychiatric illness) is justified by the (potential) benefits to that population."
http://neuroethicscanada.wordpress.com/2010/05/02/tobacco-denormalization-and-stigma/

That's why people have to do that huddled and shunned without adequate shelter thing, if they want to smoke a cigarette in public.
In obeying the law , you conform to the desired stereotype."


This denormalisation is certainly working in already criminalising smokers as can be seen here by another Smokers as litterers case - and get the tone of the piece. The media has bought into denormalisation without even realising it. It makes me ashamed to call myself a Journsalist when my "colleagues" can turn on their readers without fighting the big Pharma companies that fund this hatred or even questioning the necessity of this kind of action.

Yes, I know I've debated this before - litter is litter but smoking litter is somehow worse than dropping chip papers, beer cans, or chewing gum that takes a decade to clear. Cig ends are biodegradable. It's like dropping a leaf. SHS is an invention. It does not kill. The truth in their game of smoker hating really doesn't matter anymore. After all tell a lie often enough and it becomes the truth.

I have talked on here of raising funds to prosecute these people for hate crime and I am still waiting for an offer of legal help. I'll keep repeating it until some comes forward. There are fears, I know, that if we lose this legal battle then we'll be fooked. We have nothing to lose. We're fooked anyway. This could be the turning point we need to be treated as equally as other people and to make the hate stop. If we do not, they will hound us out of our homes and jobs.

I say again, if you don't smoke or don't like smoking and you support this programme of denormalisation, then you ARE supporting the same kind of hate as the Nazis began to show towards the Jews long before the holocaust - the final solution - came along. That took time. Smokers may not end up in the gas chamber but we will end up locked up in very uncomfortable places when tobacco is made illegal and it will. It is simply a question of time and is already on the bigots tick list of things to do.

First, like the Nazis made the German people accept hate of the Jews, the likes of ASH Scotland and ASH UK are making ordinarily decent people hate smokers with the same passion. Ask yourselves this. If ASH et al really cared about helping people to quit and they really cared about people full stop, they would not promote this programme of denormalisation. It is inhuman. It comes from a standpoint of hate. It promotes and legalises hate. Please make this hate stop and stop supporting this.

The smoking ban is only part of this. Choice means just that. We can choose to be the people we are. It matters not whether we can smoke in a pub or not. What matters is the smoking ban lays the groundwork for the next phase to finally rid the world of smokers. It legalises hate and discrimination. Is this really what you want?

If you want to save the services that matter, then join us. Stand with us. Write to your MP and demand that hate crime against us stops and denormalisation ends. If you do not, you will have to live with the shame of criminalising law abiding people because of who they are. If you do not, it will be your turn next.

Is this really what you want?

* UPDATE - Smokers are now deemed a terrorist threat I despair.

SMOKING OUT STATE HYPOCRISY

Isn't this entrapment? I didn't know it had been legalised. I always feel uncomfortable whenever I read this type of story. Would the retailer have sold these products if the kids weren't sent in by the authorities to ask for them?

Anyway, I digress. I visited my local paper's site to see if they carried anything about Lincolnshire Police's Hate Crime Strategy launch. Phew! That was a mouthful but then these titles always are these days.

"Hate crimes and hate incidents are an issue of vital social importance because they not only affect individuals and families but also the communities and social groups to which they belong ..." The police say.

Social Groups? Would that include smokers? I read on, fascinated.

"...minority communities are often smaller in number, so individuals may feel even more marginalised and isolated."

Yep, I thought. I can identify with that. I know I'm not the only smoker, from this minority social group that feels "marginalised and isolated." Hell, the likes of tobacco control are even trying to "denormalise" my "community" and make others shun and avoid us leading others to attack us either verbally or physically.

I felt quite hopeful that "normal" people generally were beginning to notice that people with different lifestyles actually can be discriminated against.

Sylvia Lancaster is campaigning for lifestyles and dress to be included in hate crime legislation. Her daughter Sophie was murdered because she was a goth. Mrs Lancaster is trying to "challenge prejudice and intolerance towards people from alternative subcultures."

I have explained my cultural attachment to smoking many times. I know of few people personally who do belong to that even smaller minority group of smoking fettishm but I guess it fits into the box of "alternative subculture."

Most of us just want to be left alone without the relentless campaigns against us and our lifestyles. We will never change our belief about smoking.

It seems belief is also protection from the authorities according to North Norfolk Council who say :

"People can experience a Hate Crime/ Incident because of their actual or perceived age, disability, cultural, ethnic, national or racial origin, gender or gender identity, religion or belief, sexual orientation or some other aspect of their appearance or lifestyle."

I wonder what Breckland Council, also in Norfolk, would make of all this? After all, it has a prejudicial belief about smokers and singles them out for derogatory treatment at work.

I KNOW HOW HE FEELS

Someone sent this to me via Facebook and I just had to share. Enjoy ... or not depending on which side of the fence you sit!

SMOKES ON A PLANE

My guess is that thanks to the EU, duty free tobacco no longer exists. The price is level across Europe - except in Britain which really does have to push the knife in and twist it in a smoker's back as punishment for daring to enjoy something the righteous tell us we shouldn't - and it's the same price on the boarding side of the airport as it is in Italian shops.

I reckon the best bargain I got was the above packet at three Euros for 30g. This pack of Elixyer tells me that it was made in the EU under the arrangement with the Western Tobacco Corporation, Newark (USA). I had to admit being mildy amused by the warning on the packet which says "strictly for smokers!". Another example of a waste of space. I mean, would anyone who didn't smoke buy this stuff or use it? I guess the manufacturers, or their masters in the EU, think we smokers are so thick we'd consider buying tobacco as a present for those who don't smoke.

I found Pisa airport, frankly, rabidly anti-smoking. There was a tiny tobacco shop, with products mostly hidden in a cupboard and only a random selection of not very popular brands like strong, dark Samson, or Old Holborn. Popular Golden Virgina was priced at five Euros for 40g. Not worth it so I got the light Drum variety and a hope for the best of a limited choice.

Pisa airport also fired off the "This is a Non-smoking airport" every few minutes. Like we didn't know. Duh!

This was pretty much the same as the Ryanair flight but there was a twist. Immediately after announcing that Ryanair operated a no smoking policy on all it's flights - yeah - it's the law Michael O'Leary - it then went on to publicise the new "Smokeless" cigarettes which it was selling on the plane.

"It's a long flight of two hours so why wait for a cigarette when you can enjoy a smokeless cigarette in flight," said the voice over the tannoy as the air hostesses were walking the aisle offering packs of these things.

I was rather insulted and would prefer that the plane took a nose dive than consider buying this tripe. Either smoking is acceptable or it's not. I won't take any part in the promotion of false cigarettes to make some businessman richer on the back of the persecution of smokers. It's why smokers who go rushing for E cigarettes annoy me so much. They really are letting the side down.

I watched to see how many people would take up this offer of being able to smoke trash on a plane. Happily no one did but plenty of people who came off that flight lit a real one outside of the airport.

UKIP'S FIGHT TO SAVE OUR PUBS

Nigel Farage speaks about pub closures and the UKIP policy to help beleagured pub landlords.

I can already hear the supporters of the blanket smoking ban crying out that the slaughter in the hospitality industry has nothing to do with it. Yes it does, although there are obviously other factors like high tax and supermarket cheap beer and spirits. But let us not forget we had both before the smoking ban and we did not have the same rate of rapid closures.
The figures for closure are below from 2005 up to 2007. They have risen rapidly ever since and now stand at 52 per wek.
2005: 102, 2006: 216, 2007: 1,409
Even the most pub closure sceptic can't deny that it does seem like something of a strong co-incidence that the closure rate shot up so high with the divisive and discriminatory Health Act's arrival in mid-2007.

AIRPORT SMOKING

Amsterdam Schipol Airport certainly knows how to treat smokers with dignity and respect. It has three smoking rooms similar to this one above. A veritable haven for those like myself who hate flying and get all worked up before boarding. A nice cigarette, with a warm cup of tea, is the absolute best thing there is for calming nerves.

The smoking room is sealed, and cleaned regularly. There is adequate ventilation which means no smoke fug to endure, and it was great to touch base with other angry and excluded smokers who were all keen to know about the anti-prohibition conference I had just attended.

This is such a small concession for the huge airport to make and it showed it values its smoking customers as much as its non-smoking customers. I can't think of any reason why other airports in the world, including the UK, could not provide similar resources for smokers. After all, isn't our money as good a anyone else's?

OOPS!

It looks like I've upset someone on Facebook who had this to say :

"Patsy Nurse (surely that can't be her real name??) It is NOT Governments that divide the World; on the contrary, they have been labouring mightily since at least 1920 (League of Nations) to unite it and form One World Government, run by sinister figures such as Bilderbergers, Elders of Zion, Davos Summitteers, EU bureaucrats, Common Purpose members, freemasons, Bnai Brith people etc etc

"It is the way of the World that divides the World: human nature is quarrelsome; there are 2000 languages out there; an awful lot of History (and we are all prisoners of our pasts, whether we like it or not).

"Unfortunately, neither Patsies nor Nurses understand these complex realities: "Good fences make Good Neighbours", (Robert Frost, American poet) Think how difficult it is even for wives to live with their husbands nowadays (especially the menopausal ones) so how can whole Nations and Peoples be expected to cohabit peacefully? Conflicts are inevitable: armies of diplomats exist to try to postpone them but real Armies have every interest to fight for promotion (as above) funding, glory etc. Unfortunately, Patsies and Nurses do not & will never understand this, because they are women and War is a Man thing (see Othello again) Just stick to your knitting please, Patsy.

.. and this...

"Patsy Nurse (the name says it all, doesn't it all) knows NOTHING of the Pomp and Circumstance of Glorious War (as Othello called it). It brings out the best in people, as well as the worst. But it is also a powerful instrument of historical change & economic & technological development.

"There are plenty of other reasons for grief and anger (we all have to die and we all quarrel). These are normal human emotions. And they cause war, rather than being caused by it.

Women love losing their sons! They don't want them around the house eating, farting and taking up space after the age of 18. Many brothers & sisters are not particularly close; they squabble and fight from tots to teens, then quarrel over parents' inheritances. As for lovers; well love comes and goes.

"Even if Johnny does come marching home again, his girl will have written him a "Dear John" letter by then and found someone else with more £££££. Women also love being war widows: the pension and inheritance may well be worth more than the divorce settlement she would have got, if she had gone to law. And enemy action saves lawyers' fees. Mind you, he would have had to pay those too, even if the IED didn't get him first, the divorce would've hit him just the same."

OK - I admit my reaction to war is emotional and my idealist approach would tend to err on the side of not wanting anyone to die for any reason that couldn't be resolved by political debate, but I honestly don't knit and for anyone who doubted it, my name is real - Patricia Margaret Nurse. My friends call me Patsy, my professional friends call me Pat. I told my critic that he could call me Mrs Nurse.

My critic went on to friend me and then had this to say about smoking :

"Tea is bad enough (full of poisonous caffeine) cigarettes are suicide. Why don't you just take up crack & heroine instead; your statistical chances of survival may even be greater, in the long term."

Despite his bad spelling of heroin, he deemed it right that he should send me a personal message to correct my spelling of "hypocrasy" (Hypocrisy) . I defriended him and then discovered he was a BNP supporter. I wonder if they all think this way?

... AND THIS ...

Another piece from the world wide web, this time Spiked and what a damn good piece is it too. I do completely agree with this point :" The intervening two decades have brought remarkable changes in the way that both smokers and giving up smoking are viewed in our society. It seems to me now that these changes are about far more than the way we see cigarettes. They mark a downward shift in the predominant cultural view of our humanity, and a demeaning of the qualities of adult autonomy and independence."

Enjoy :http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/7894/

THE HIDDEN TRUTH ABOUT SMOKING

Author Rich White scrutinises the tobacco related health myth in his new book Smoke Screens, The Truth About Tobacco, which is released next week.

Rich's detailed research retraces the steps of the anti-smoking movement and analyses its often outrageous, and inflated, claims about tobacco.

The book looks at smoking related diseases and what actually causes them and how tobacco was exploited as a cause all because of the massive amount of funding being thrown in by Big Pharma to "prove" how dangerous it was.

What is often now referred to as the evil weed, had humble, medicinal roots, and was used by Native Americans to treat many ailments. Up until 30 years ago, it was recomended by GPs, and Rich's own granny was told to smoke when pregnant on doctor's orders. The accusation that tobacco kills millions, is explored, and how this simple plant became so controversial is explained.

"The sad truth is that because the mantra of smoking being harmful has been repeated so many times people now just accept it without question or research. However, misinformation or a lie told over and over is still wrong; never will mere repetition make something true," he said.

Rich, who gets no funding from any tobacco firm, or tobacco related industry, has shown that the time has come to find out just where the truth does lie. The fanatical whisper that became a roar because of personal prejudices and big money is about to be exposed.

http://www.smokescreens.org/

BIGOTRY ENCOURAGED IN 21st CENTURY WEST

I hope to be able to get back to more regular blogging soon. Meanwhile, words can barely express my depression at this http://www.freedom2choose.info/news_viewer.php?id=1040

How can such discrimination happen when we have spent decades moving on from just this kind of bigotry? Why can modern society not recognise what is happening and how far smoking propaganda and the persecution of smokers is going? Why do they not see that their lifestyle enjoyment could next be under attack and they will be villified and excluded if they do not live their lives as the Govt tells them?

I am too sad for words.

Meanwhile, this piece over on Forces International has a very good explanation of the rod used by the state to denormalise smokers. http://www.forces.org/Forces_Articles/article_viewer.php?id=671

I hope to be able to get some more blogging done later today. I have quite a lot to report.

NHS VIDEO COMPLAINT UPDATE

The Birmingham EN PCT has again been in touch about my complaint about its horrendous anti-smoking video that shows a smoker getting beaten to death on a public street.

I am very pleased that the complaints department has taken me seriously and there is to be a face to face meeting t o discuss my concerns.

I am hoping to have some political weight behind me in support at the meeting because I really do want to be sure that the PCT gets the message that this kind of propaganda is not health information but an incitement to violence.

Only yesterday I read that a mentally ill smoker had stabbed his elderly mother to death because she refused to let him smoke in her house. Deaths by smoking ban are already happening on both sides. This kind of video adds nothing to the health and smoking debate but does lend credence and gives govt justifcation to those who show their displeasure at smoking or smoking bans through violence.

And, while I'm on the subject of what I read in the papers yesterday, I should point out that one smoking child abuser who stubbed out fag ends on her child's back, is just that - one out of 11 million law abiding and caring smoker adults. The fact that this woman smoked 10 cigs in 20 minutes during a court break seemed to be of more importance to some papers than that cruelty she imposed upon her own child.

HOW MUCH MORE CAN THEY DO?

I've been busy over the last few days alerting the local press to the Jolly Brewer's Smoking Festival in a bid to get some coverage and that is how I have learned about which way an amendment to the smoking ban is likely to go.

I was told by a radio reporter that according to those on the anti-smoking side of the issue, the only amendment on the cards is a further tightening up of the ban in public places.

Incredulous, I asked how on earth it could possibly get much tighter because it is a blanket public smoking ban currently affecting everywhere.

The reporter told me that he thinks one of the things will certainly be a ban in all hotels.

I hope this is a nasty and vile rumour - or just wishful thinking on the antis' part - but I can't help feeling that bigoted and prejudicial NuLab is probably thinking that way.

Is there any point in writing to your MP about your disgust if this is true so close to an election when NuLab is likely to be annihilated and Blue Labour just doesn't give a damn.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you care about choice, vote UKIP! It makes logical sense and it sends a very strong and clear message to the three main parties that the smoking issue matters - a lot!

HEALTH FEARS OVER UNTESTED FIRE SAFE CIGS

Concerns have been raised over moves from Scotland to push the UK Govt into adopting fire safe cigarettes because they have not been tested to measure the impact on public health.
Indian public health and social activist supremo Hemant Goswami and British Pro-choice group Freedom2Choose say the Reduced Ignition Propensity Cigarettes (RIPs), although welcomed to reduce fire risks, could be dangerous to people’s health and they should not be introduced until the effects of using them are known.
F2C says the RIPs have been given backing by anti-smoking MSP Stewart Maxwell who wants Scotland to become the first country in Europe to introduce the cigarettes which go out quickly if unattended.
Maxwell, who has support from fire chiefs, is calling for a change in law at Westminster to make the cigarettes compulsory.
Concerns were raised over the issue of RIPs by Goswami at a conference in Arkansas two years ago.
Goswami has asked the scientific community to be more alert before embracing the concept and says there has been a clear strategic push by the tobacco industry to influence US states to adopt it.
“We must do independent primary research before accepting and adopting concepts like fire-safe cigarettes which are claimed to be less likely to catch indoor structural fires if left unattended. Such concepts have been only tested from the fire-safety point of view and no independent study has still been undertaken by the scientific or public health community to assess the effect of the engineered modifications in RIP cigarettes.,” he said.
F2C chairman Andy Davis questioned the rush move to introduce RIPs and said it appeared that ministers like Maxwell had no regard for the health of citizens.
“Certain materials which would not smoulder or burn were discarded and ignored in the study and lit cigarettes were placed between layers of material to maximise damage. This would never happen in normal life,” he said.
“If these modified cigarette papers are an effective way of fire-prevention, they are potentially dangerous to consumers and should not even have been considered until rigorous scientific tests have proved their safety.”
Eight fire deaths were said to have been caused by smouldering cigarettes last year

SMOKING CAN BE GOOD FOR YOU ...

I like the article here http://frank-davis.livejournal.com/7703.html from Frank Davis. It's a common sense, reasonable argument, with sound advice - isn't that what we want in any healthy debate.

The only cancerous thing about the smoking issue is the vitriol in which smokers are being described by those who are trying to make them feel abnormal because of their own fears, prejudices, and outright hatred. .. 'nuff said !