Forget health, anti-smoking laws are about control
Monday, December 15, 2014 at 8:56
Simon Clark

We've made the front page of the Scottish Daily Mail this morning.

On page 2 I'm quoted as follows:

"This is a taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut. We don't condone people smoking in cars with children but these are private vehicles and we are concerned that the next logical step will be to try to ban smoking in homes as well.

"This will be excessive and almost impossible to enforce. If a car is going 30 or 40mph, police will not be able to say if there was a child in the car and I'm sure the police have better things to do."

Jackson Carlaw, health spokesman for the Scottish Tories', appears to share our view:

"We are reluctant to resort to legislation as we are concerned about not only enforceability but also the diversion of police resources."

Scottish Labour, however, support legislation and the SNP-led Scottish Government is "broadly sympathetic" to the Bill which is being put forward by Lib Dem MSP Jim Hume.

The next step, as we've always said, will be a ban on smoking in all private vehicles followed by bans in other private spaces including, eventually, the home.

Interestingly, figures published last week revealed a rise in the number of smokers in Scotland. "Scotland is losing the war on tobacco" reports the Mail, in a separate article.

According to the Scottish Household Survey 23.1 of adults were smoking in 2013, up from 22.9 in 2012. So much for "making progress".

Of course the knee-jerk reaction to failure is to push for more legislation, backed up by fines and other penalties, until it becomes physically impossible for an adult to smoke without breaking the law.

Forget health. This is about control.

Article originally appeared on Simon Clark (http://taking-liberties.squarespace.com/).
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