Thursday
Dec182014
Ireland: law passed, now police have to "figure out" how to apply car smoke ban
Thursday, December 18, 2014 at 16:45 First plain packaging, now smoking in cars with children.
Are we in a race with Ireland to be the biggest nanny state in Europe?
The Dáil today passed a law making it illegal to smoke in a car carrying a child but it won't take effect until the police "have developed procedures to figure out how it can be applied".
You might have thought that would have been addressed in advance. What happens if they can't "figure out how it can be applied"?
I wonder if police forces in Britain are currently pondering the same thing.
You couldn't make it up.
See Dáil passes bill banning smoking in cars with children present (Irish Examiner)
Reader Comments (9)
It's going to be nigh on impossible. My car has tinted rear windows as factory fitted.
We are beginning to make Sweden look excitingly laissez-faire.
It doesn't matter whether it can be enforced or not. This is a law made to give the impression that smokers are child abusers who can only be stopped by law.
It's the next step towards criminalisation of the consumer via denormalisation.
It isn't about the children and it isn't about health. It's about smokerphobia and the anti-smoker zealots winning their pathetic battle against Big T
Smokers can no longer socialise alongside everyone else inside Britain's pubs and clubs. The smoking ban breaches peoples rights and has no doubt brought social isolation to millions of people. Until this gets overturned,we have little chance of holding back anti smoking and its hateful groups that use the children at every opportunity. If the Ireland car ban is not possible to apply then don't they have their reason, to propose a smoking ban in all road vehicles ?
This is just silly. I really don’t see what’s to “figure out.” How do the police “figure out” how to implement any other road traffic offence? It isn’t rocket science, is it? You see someone smoking in a car, you look to see if there are any children in there as well and, if so, you pull them over and give them a ticket. Pointless and a waste of police time? Yes, of course. But hardly something which needs a lot of “figuring out.”
Methinks I smell a whiff of police reluctance on this one, and rightly so.
We need a big stick!
Some good points here…but you know, we just don’t have that crucial ingredient…a very big stick. You know the kind of thing…a bigger stick to beat the government and the zealots with, than they have to beat us with. I’m afraid without that there’s really not a lot we can do!
This big stick could have been provided in the form of Tobacco Companies doing their bit by supporting us in our endeavours. What support have we had from these people? We’ve had no support at all…unless of course someone can point me in the direction where this support has existed. No takers – eh? Well, I’m not surprised.
We can put forward as coherent an argument as we like…but it won’t amount to a hill of beans without some form of coercion. Don’t want to sound tedious…but Farage ultimately will be our only salvation on any further incursions against our civil liberties.
Merry Christmas & a prosperous New Year!
'Farage ultimately will be our only salvation on any further incursions against our civil liberties' - I agree. I hoped for that once of the Conservative Party. What a let-down. I hope UKIP will keep its eye on the ball - and that is individual choice within the law - but a law which is fair to all.
I agree Dennis. They're not going to get it until they find out at the ballot box. Beware, though. As the months lead up to May the hatchets and knives will be out and there will be a slurry of hysterical "Farage The Fascist and Ukippers The Racists" type of story appearing most days in one form or another.
I agree on Big T too. Cowards. They've done bugger all for us, challenged no laws that beat us up, and the industry couldn't care less whether it loses a tiny fraction of business in the UK via the bullying and criminalisation of its consumers.
Big T's got kids, young, old and older globally and in the 3rd world happy to keep buying and the industry will still have customers in the more tolerant and progressive parts of the 1st world, such as the more civilised countries of Italy and the Czech Republic in Europe.
Smokers really should get into growing their own baccy and tell both Big T and Big Public Health to get lost. If Labour wins 2015, then no doubt we'll have to leave the UK to avoid any further discrimination and Govt abuse such as bans in homes, evictions if we fail to comply, and threats of loss of employment unless we quit.
Misty, it does take some figuring out. You have four lads in the car, all around 17/18. One of them is smoking. Do you bother stopping the car and asking them all their ages?