The village in Wales that wants to be "smoke free"
Tuesday, April 8, 2014 at 10:22 Have you noticed? The definition of "public place" has changed.
When the smoking ban was introduced it was understood to mean an enclosed public place.
Today the BBC reports that a village in Wales has launched a campaign "to stop smoking in public places" - by which they mean outdoor public places.
Llanfairpwll campaign to stop smoking in public places (BBC News)
Update: BBC Wales invited Forest to comment. Here's our full response:
"This is not about public health, it's about control.
"What gives local councils the right to nag and harass people when they are not breaking the law but merely smoking outside?
"The smoking ban was introduced, allegedly, to protect the health of bar workers. There is no evidence that smoking outside is harmful to anyone.
"Tobacco is a legal product. Smokers must be allowed to light up somewhere.
"If the council doesn't want children to see adults smoke it should lobby parliament to amend the smoking ban to permit smoking rooms in pubs, clubs and casinos."
Update: Tobacco control campaigners are tweeting that Llanfairpwll is now "officially" smoke free which is quite different to being smoke free.
Is this another example of Orwellian Newspeak?
PS. I'm discussing this on LBC at 6.20, if anyone's interested.
Reader Comments (14)
This news just makes me want to go to Llanfairpwll and spark up a big cigar.
To be quite honest ,who the hell wants to smoke ANWHERE in this
Godforsaken ,Druid infested mini Gulag,it's only claim to fame is the jaw dropping boredom of it's barmy name. Most surprising is the fact that 3000+ persecuted village idiots still live there.
Next step will be the ritual bog drowning by dodgy Druids of crippled smokers as a token to the Tree God of Health and Safety
.............................Duwaerglân................................
Simon, Every time you refer to pubs and clubs as 'public places' - 'enclosed' or not - I am going to post yet another protest and reminder that they bloody well aren't.
It makes you wonder whether localism is such a good idea, when it gives nose-prodders the excuse to impose their own prejudices against smokers. The chances are that it is unlikely that more than 0.000001% of smokers are ever likely to venture into Llanfairpwll - it is not exactly on the tourist trail.
These things are prone to happen in small communities where its easy to bully and pry. You usually find a small cabal or even a pushy individual behind such moves. I remember a village not far from here went plastic bag 'free' a few years ago just because some overbearing woman went round browbeating shops not to stock them. If it's any comfort these things tend to be a nine-days wonder.
Someone should tell these idiots what happened in Stony Stratford.
It's not about health. It's about hate and social exclusion. When will the Govt and the media wake up to the fact that ASH Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, US, Australia, are running a coordinated hate campaign?
Are there any pubs left in this flea ridden borough,if so ,you can bet laughter and frivolity are not high on the agenda. A wailing session at the local chapel or a pagan gathering at some rain sodden bog are probably the annual highlights.
'Public Places' - ie, areas where 'common people' congregate, are undesirable. The 'common people' need to realise that their place is at home and hooked up to the telly or internet. Smokers are the 'enemy' because they spread the diseases of 'common sense' and 'sociability'.
Pubs are only for 'eaters with children' and 'eaters' cannot be smokers, obviously!
I think that these 'events' should be encouraged and applauded by commenting on local newspapers, if possible. Forest should ignore them. They should be encouraged with full velocity of disgusting, filthy, stinking rhetoric, allied with anti-alcohol rhetoric at full blast - and anti fatty, disgusting, filthy, stinking obese.
We who detest the totalitarian, fascist regime to which we are being subjected must use our intelligence. BRING IT ON!
Why not position signs on the approach to this village, stating that smokers are not welcome in Llanfairpwll ?
Any campaign that sees to it that people are made to feel stigmatised, bullied and excluded is surely a hate campaign.
In my opinion ASH is a hate group and it should be shut down.
"Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is aiming to be the country's first smoke-free village by asking people not to light up in public places."
Mirror
Well, it's one way to get yourself noticed again.
Its a wonder they still have pubs that are open in that village, going on rural life since the smoking ban and the recession most rural pubs only open at weekends nowadays if at all. I'd say its more to do with people smoking outside village shops, supermarkets etc and on the street.
And those 'dirty butts' dont go down well for their Tidy Towns image dont you know, it just doesent look 'nice'.
"Signs will be erected in Llanfairpwll urging people not to smoke but there will be no enforcement." (BBC)
...the inference being that there is a right to enforce - when they're isn't. I think this kind of reporting is really insidious, though - a way of creating an impression such that eventually people are surprised that enforcement isn't exercised with calls for the law to be changed to enable it.