Sunday
Apr082012
How the hosepipe ban could be a template for smoking in the home
Sunday, April 8, 2012 at 13:06 Writing about the hosepipe ban on Friday The Times reported, 'Neighbours to police the big turn-off'.
Can anyone be in any doubt that this is how government may try to enforce a smoking ban in and around the home? That, and the threat of a £1,000 fine for lighting up on your own property.
Reader Comments (10)
It would not shock me now we seem to be moving towards bans on everything. If this government brought in a smoking ban in the home the'll have to build many Prisons because that would be where i would be going. I just hope people will get out and vote there's a few elections before the general election, and when the next general election comes people will realize we have a one party state and vote against all the three main party's, and "call me Dave Cameron claimed he was a supporter of civil liberties and peoples personal freedoms", well we've all been let down like a cheap pair of braces.
Terrifying. Isn't there a name for countries that encourage this kind of thing?
Perhaps that will be the straw that breaks the camel's back, and we'll do something rather than just express dismay.
That...and using children to denounce their own families. The way things are progressing drinkers won't be exempt either.
It is no wonder that people are disillusioned with politicians and the three main parties. In reality, if you vote for either of the main three, there really is little difference in their policies. The Tories opposed the tobacco display legislation in opposition, but duly enacted it when in power. Why should anyone believe a word they say? They are a bunch a crooks robbing us blind of our taxes and liberties!
How can one neighbour sue another for breaking the ban? This one's beyond me.
The law-abiding, decent, compliant people of the suburbs and shires, just don't see it. Do we really have to wait until a new era of the midnight knock before we wake up?
There is a bit of a problem with this “snooping” business, though, of which the authorities are well aware, and that is that although people rarely have any compunction about “dobbing in” strangers, they are notoriously reluctant to split on people that they know and like and (perhaps more importantly) who know them.
I don’t know if you recall, Simon, but many, many years ago there was a (pre-ban) study done to ascertain people’s views about a possible smoking ban, and whilst quite a lot of people (though, admittedly, not as many as the antis would have us believe) supported the idea of a generic, general ban, almost no-one supported the idea of a ban in their own local pub or their own workplace. Further investigations into this anomaly discovered that whereas people were perfectly OK with total strangers being restricted, they didn’t like the idea of people they knew – their own friends, family, colleagues, acquaintances etc – being persecuted in this way.
There’s ample evidence of this psychology at work all the time; radio phone-in programmes and the comments sections of internet articles are chock-full of people calling for all sorts of massive penalties and restrictions on particularly criticised groups, but once the tables are turned and one of their own is included in that group, reasonability and cries for justice and compassion are heard from the same people! And it's one of the reasons why, since the smoking ban was imposed, many previously-supportive people have openly changed their stance on it and have started describing it as destructive, divisive, unreasonable, excessive etc.
On the plus side, of course, this “neighbourhood watch” type scheme does give smokers the opportunity to watch their anti-smoking neighbours like a hawk and to report them for even the most minor infringement of the hosepipe ban. Or (whisper it quietly) to report them even if there’s been no infringement at all (No! Surely not!) Sauce for the goose, as they say …
Hitler would be so proud.
"If this government brought in a smoking ban in the home they'll have to build many Prisons ..............."
With respect, Gary, it should be plain to all that there are three Golden Rules in respect to 'democratic' politics today - and they're the only ones you need to know as a Minister or ambitious young MP:
1) The Public will do as it's told
2) The Public will do as it's told
3) The Public will do as it's told
In this context, 'Parliament' may now be considered as a sub-set of 'The Public'.