Local councillors weren't elected to be our moral guardians

Another council wants to stop adults smoking in children's play areas.

I have just given this quote to the BBC:

"Most adult smokers don't light up in children's play areas, just as they don't smoke in cars carrying children, so it seems heavy-handed and unnecessarily intrusive to make an issue of it.

"Children are in no danger from people smoking in the open air and it's not the council's job to 'protect' children from the sight of someone smoking.

"The purpose of this initiative has nothing to do with public health. It's designed to denormalise a legal activity and make smokers feel guilty about their habit.

"Local councillors should stick to the things they were elected to do. It's not their role to be our moral guardians."

This latest initiative is 'voluntary' which means they are going to rely on non-smoking members of the general public to police it for them.

What we're witnessing is nothing less than a temperance style crusade against smoking, except that the word 'temperance' no longer applies.

This is all about prohibition.

Update: Coventry parents urged not to smoke in parks (BBC News).

Note how the headline is shortened to 'parks'.

Comments

[Adam]

Link to the BBC report?

[David]

For obvious reasons it'd have to encompass e cigs.

[The Blocked Dwarf]

The next step for the fASHites is to contend that the children of smokers carry tobacco residues on them and thus trigger little Tarquin's asthma....