Insulting our intelligence
Friday, November 23, 2018 at 11:21 I go away for three days and while I'm away ASH publishes a report about smoking in the home.
The Times headlined its report. 'Plan to stamp out smoking in social housing':
I was quoted (in print and online) by The Times and a number of regional newspapers (online only) but my soundbite was restricted to the first sentence so the points about discrimination and prohibition got lost.
That's important because – despite the evidence before us – ASH is determined to deny the suggestion that they want to ban smoking in people's homes.
Deborah Arnott, chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health has said it is “unreasonable” to stop people from smoking in their own homes, but more has to be done to reduce smoking in social housing and privately-rented properties.
Deborah's colleague Hazel Cheeseman said much the same thing when we were interviewed together on LBC.
In Hazel's case she emphasised that the aim was to make new developments 'smoke free'. But that's still prohibition, right?
It strikes me that ASH is playing down the idea of stopping people smoking in their own homes because they know how that sounds to most people.
The reality is, ASH is deliberately obscuring the truth of the situation, as prohibitionists always do.
How often, for example, did we read that ASH didn't want to ban smoking in every pub and restaurant in the country until, one day, they did.
"No-one is seriously talking about a complete ban on smoking in pubs and restaurants," said Clive Bates, director of ASH, in September 1998.
Or what about the ban on smoking in cars carrying children? When we voiced concern about banning smoking in private vehicles the British Lung Foundation responded:
'Smoking in cars results in concentrations of toxins much higher than are normally found elsewhere ... Suggesting that other bans will inevitably follow insults the intelligence of the public ...'
If anyone is insulting our intelligence it's Deborah Arnott and ASH who want to create 'smoke free' housing developments where residents are not allowed to smoke while insisting "we certainly do not want to ban it".
If that's not a real-life example of George Orwell's Newspeak I don't know what is.
Reader Comments (5)
ASH is lying. That is what they do. They do want to ban people from smoking in their homes and they will target those on low incomes because they are easy to push around. They have announced their intention to bully poorer smokers with the threat of, ultimately, eviction and removal of their children, during the noise on Brexit so few will notice or kick up a stink about it.
Raising this now is to test public opinion. Now watch for a flurry of "selfish addicted smokers are killing their children at home and they don't care" press releases claiming all sorts of nonsense such as promoting the idea that childhood illnesses which affect all kids, such as ear infections, only affect those children of smokers.
ASH and their cronies are evil, nasty, abusive, overpaid, bigots who pick on the weak and vulnerable because they can. I say that anyone who loses their home as a result of ASH hate campaigning should then pitch up a tent right outside the front door of these Naztie vile excuses for humans.
Meanwhile, note the divide and conquer tactics by wooing vapers with the threat of forcing smokers to quit, be evicted, or vape. vaping is awful and no substitute for happy smokers who do not hate themselves. We also do not know the long term health implications of vaping and I sure as hell won't be forced into it not knowing how it could affect me after decades of use. That risk is being pushed on people for political reasons. If and when it goes wrong, the thugs at ASH will be long gone and no one will be held accountable.
I rent in Spain, there is no call for me not to smoke in my rental. In the UK I have noticed a lot of rental agencies are putting into the adverts for rental properties (No pets, No smokers) shades of 1930s upto 1960s when it was okay to cite (No blacks, no Irish) because they could. Until it was made illegal, perhaps we smokers should claim to be a victimised minority and see what the results would be. As for myself I have come across one landlord who attempted to tell me I could not smoke if I rented from him. He was very surprised at my reply. It was full of Anglo Saxon expletetives
This needs stopping straightaway. Smoking is a legal pursuit and it is no business of anyone else what you do in your home either rented or owned. These nasty prohibitionists have now gone far enough. How long before its alcohol or any food they don't approve of. The UK is rushing towards a Big Brother society and I for one will fight ASH every step of the way.
The persecution of smokers must stop. The antismoker grifters encouraging these draconian bans must be stopped. Their sinister lies must be exposed and their public funding removed. Active resistance against this persecution is essential too stop the march toward prohibition and totalitarian social control.