Is That Your Auntie Smoking?

If it is, tell her to stub it out, quick! SMOKING will be illegal in enclosed public places from July 1 2007, so if Auntie has always enjoyed her bottle of guinness and a Silk Cut after shopping trips with her friend, too bad. The 'Powers-that-Be' have decided that that particular avenue of pleasure is no longer allowed. Whatever happened to freedom of choice, or free will? Sorry. You don't have that any more. The Government, in all its wisdom, thinks that you don't know what's best for you, so has had to create this 'nanny state' to look after you.

As ever, Britain is always looking over its shoulder to see what is happening in America. If they decide on a new law, health or otherwise, poor relation UK has to follow suit. Why? Why do we have to follow the Americans like sheep, when at the same time we are paying oodles of cash to belong to the exclusive EU club? Have the Americans got it right? This is an extract from an American newspaper:

Smoking ban has some businesses doing a slow burn BY KIMBERLY JACOBSON, American staff writer

Anchor Inn Tavern owner Jim Dunlap has been losing about $2,000 a month because people aren’t coming to his bar.Customers used to be able to come in and have a smoke and a beer. But after smoking was banned in virtually all public and work places last year, Dunlap hasn’t seen as many customers.“They don’t like it and want it reversed,” he said. Adding a roof and heaters in the outside beer garden hasn’t helped either.“If they can’t smoke inside they don’t come in,” he said. “It’s so discouraging now that I’m ready to sell out.”
A year ago last month, Washington voters passed Initiative 901, banning smoking in businesses, bars, restaurants, bowling alleys, non-tribal casinos, private clubs, reception areas and 75 percent of hotel rooms. Smoking is also restricted 25 feet from all doorways, windows and air intakes.

For Dunlap, the ban has hurt.“All they’re doing is driving everybody right to the tribal casinos,” he said.
Dunlap said he’s losing money because people don’t come to the now non-smoking bar but also because when they do, they often don’t spend as much time as they used to.“Not only do I lose money from them not coming, I lose money on them sitting there not playing pool,” he said. I don’t feel the government really had the right to tell me how to run my business,” he said.
Elks secretary Roger Buck said the Anacortes club’s gambling tab is down about 25 percent and sales for alcohol are down as well.“It hurt us,” he said. Some people no longer come in because they can’t smoke and others have mentioned not paying their dues because of the ban.“The majority of people wished that we would change, that the law was changed back to the way it was,” Buck said. So far, the club hasn’t been making up for the lost revenue.“We don’t have any way to make it up. If people don’t want to come in they won’t come in,” Buck said. “Hopefully we can find another way, but we haven’t so far, to get the money back we’re losing.”All the Elks lodges in the state are now non-smoking and he said about 80 percent of them have seen a dip in business.“Right now we’re just trying to do the best we can with what we got to work with. I know business is down quite a bit,” he said. Buck said a couple of members have come in and said it is nice to not smell the smoke. But he said they usually only come for one drink and leave.“They’re happy but they don’t spend any money,” he said.

We, the smokers, must no longer be looked upon as law-abiding, tax-paying citizens, and instead should be treated like lepers, tutted at with disdain and disgust by all and sundry, and thrown outside at every opportunity. How did this happen? Let's look at some historical facts...

"Tobacco smoking with pipes and cigars was common to many Native American cultures prior to the arrival of European explorers. The practice is depicted in early Mayan art dating back to around 1,500 years ago. The Mayans were also known to use tobacco as an all-purpose medicinal antidote, and the crop was widely believed to possess magical powers as its usage has been documented in ancient ceremonial sacrifices and divinations as well as in talismans.
On October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus was given dry leaves by the Arawaks, but threw them away. Throughout the 16th century, the habit of smoking was common mainly among sailors. Tobacco was introduced to England in the 1560s by the crew of Sir John Hawkins but did not begin making an impact on European society until the 1580s. The cigar became immensely popular in England during the late 1820s. In 1828, the cigarette appeared in Spain and enjoyed immediate success but still remained less popular than both the cigar and pipe until the early 20th century when cheap mechanically manufactured cigarettes became standard.
During World War I, it was typical for tobacco products to be included in military rations. Following the war, cigarette smoking was advertised as part of a glamorous, carefree lifestyle, and became socially acceptable for women. In the 1930s, Nazi medical and military leaders grew concerned with the possibility that tobacco might be hazardous to human health and their scientists were the first to confirm this link. In the United States, biologist Raymond Pearl had demonstrated the negative health effects of tobacco smoking as early as 1938. In the 1950s and 1960s, the medical community along with various governmental bodies, and Readers Digest magazine, began a campaign to reduce the degree of smoking by showing how it damaged public health. Although tobacco smoking in many regions of the world has dropped dramatically in recent years, worldwide tobacco production is still growing. Smoking rates continue to remain relatively high in some Asian countries."

And so, we are now in 2007, and after more than 100 years of smoking being popularised, advertised, taxed, and even given away by US and British governments in army rations as late as the 1950's, they have now done a complete 180 degree turn, and decided to stop it.
I realise that the anti-smoking lobbyists have the upper hand. They love to preach to us smokers about the health risks, the smell, the cost etc. We are not stupid. We know about all these things, but choose to continue to smoke.
Speaking personally, I will admit that I wish I had never started, but that is not the same as wanting to stop, or worse still, being told to stop.

They are raising the age at which young people can buy cigarettes. As if that will make a difference. If kids want to smoke, they will do. I'm not saying they should be encouraged, because I hate to see local kids as young as 8 with a fag in their mouths. But it has always happened. Ever since Wills became the first mass-producer of machine-made cigs in the late 1880's, kids have picked up the fags, and along with it, the addiction. They see their parents, or other adults smoking, and believe it somehow to be 'grown-up'.

Maybe in the Brave, New, Non-Smoking World, the cigarette manufacturers will be forced to not only issue health warnings, but also actively discourage people from starting smoking in the first place. Although this cartoon seems funny at the moment, never forget the power of Big Brother. (And no, I'm not talking about Jade Goody & co)

The latest government scare campaign includes TV advertisements showing people being seized by fish hooks as they are dragged to their traditional smoking spots. The ads aim to demonstrate the controlling nature of smoking and to encourage smokers to break the cycle of their addiction.
Outdoor advertising, direct mail, interactive TV, and a dedicated website with tips and advice on breaking a tobacco addiction are also being used to push the campaign’s message.
http://www.gosmokefree.co.uk/video/Mum_Street_without_hook_non_agency_vsn_40.mpg

It is all very slick, and the propaganda aspect is not lost on me, or other smokers. We realise that, just as Nazi Joseph Goebbels succeeded in portraying Jews as no better than rats in his film, "The Eternal Jew", we smokers of the Noughties are shown as being sad, pathetic individuals with no will of our own. The idea is to shame us into stopping smoking, or risk being seen as lesser individuals by our peers.
The NHS has put out scaremongering tactics too in the last couple of years. There have been calls to not treat anyone admitted to hospital with a smoking-related disease. Don't they realise that it is the very tax money taken from smokers that has kept the NHS afloat all these years! Instead of vilifying us for being smokers, their proper response should be, "Ooh yes Sir! You're a Smoker? Let me show you to your Private Room, where you will be treated by our very best Doctors, and be shown first-class treatment all round! Care for a grape?"

I know I am on to a loser by even writing this mither, because the do-gooder, anti-smoking league is so in vogue at the moment that they just can't fail. To remain a smoker in the UK you will have to have lots of money to pay the ever-increasing tax on cigarettes, a spine of steel to deflect the disparaging looks and sneers, and an all-weather constitution for standing out on the pavement, (at least 25 feet away from a door or window where proper, normal, non-smoking people are). I hope they realise that once they get their way, and all smokers have either stopped or died, their income tax bill will rise by at least 8% to cover all the lost revenue that we smokers have been pumping into the government coffers forever. It is of little solace, but at least I will be able to look down from my heavenly (smoke-filled, probably) cloud, play my harp, and smile sardonically down on Mr and Mrs CleanAir as they struggle to pay their bills after being taxed to the hilt...