Tracy's law
Tuesday, January 29, 2019 at 10:18 Labour MP Tracy Brabin will today propose a Ten Minute Rule Bill to introduce legislation to ban smoking on hospital sites in England.
She explains her reasons for the Smoking Prohibition (National Health Service Premises) Bill in the Yorkshire Post (Why I want to change the law to stub out smoking on NHS hospital grounds and Politics Home (It’s time to make hospital grounds smoke-free).
Forest's response reads:
Introducing a law to ban smoking on hospital grounds would be an abuse of parliamentary time.
The overwhelming majority of NHS trusts already have smoke free policies that include on site smoking bans.
Individual trusts, not high-minded politicians in Westminster, should be allowed to decide their policy on smoking and the extent to which they enforce a ban, partial or otherwise.
Threatening to prosecute people for smoking on hospital grounds is not only disproportionate to the offence, it would discriminate against the elderly and the infirm who may find it difficult if not impossible to go off site.
Hospitals can be stressful places and for some people smoking is a comfort at a difficult time. Patients especially have a right to expect some empathy and compassion.
A bill that bans smoking on NHS sites is no way to treat people who may be at their lowest ebb.
I'll keep you posted.
Update: I discussed this on BBC Radio Leeds at lunchtime.
I was also quoted by the Yorkshire Post - see Smoking must be banned in all hospital grounds as Tracy Brabin MP bids to change the law.
Reader Comments (6)
So, MPs are to vote on banning smokers from hospitals because that will be the result. They have already otherised us as patients.
The intolerance and hate campaign is having the desired effect of creating health inequalities for smokers where non existed before.
Bigoted bullying MPs should know better but first they have to have a sense of intellect which appears to be missing in their rabid hatred of smokers.
At the start of her article she is being disingenuous.
"SMOKING in hospital grounds has long been a divisive issue – there are those who loathe facing plumes of smoke as they enter hospital buildings, and others who cannot wait to get outside to light up."
Smoking in hospital grounds does not mean round the entrances. It means smoking in a shelter perhaps 10 or 15 metres from any entrances.
And the persecution of smokers continued, fueled by hate and prejudice and sustained by manipulated data and propaganda. The anti-smoking crusade must be stopped.
Anti-smokers created this mess by first banning smoking indoors and then in the shelters.Then they complain that all the smokets are in one place.
I tried to leave a vitriolic reply on PoliticsHome, but it said my email address wasn't recognised, even though I have an account and receive their 'news'.
Vitriol might not be the best way to change someone's mind, but let's be honest, they will never change their mind anyway. I spent years trying to be nice to politicians, but I got absolutely nowhere - unless it was something they 'passionately' believed in themselves, which was rare.
Tracy Brabin MP (I'd never heard of her before, but another MP wanting to make a name for herself by way of sadism) either cannot relate to people at all or is a liar when she writes of giving "support to our Trusts to make hospital grounds smoke free by taking a burden off of our NHS staff to create a more pleasant experience for patients and visitors alike."
Because as everyone knows, it's a really "pleasant experience" to be forced to stop smoking against your will and at an especially stressful time. This includes visitors.
I consider myself to be fairly literate, but it's hard to find the right words to describe these individuals. Personally, I think they are genuinely sick to be this obsessed with controlling other people. It's what psychopaths do: bully, lie and lack empathy.
The nerve of this woman! She is only an MP because she was shoehorned in to Jo Cox's seat, women only shortlist and no opposition. Then she kicks us working class "corrie viewers" in the teeth with some more smoker abuse. I saw her by chance on BBC parliament, pleased with herself promoting this nasty bill.
Been upset for days. No more Labour vote. End of.