Outdoor smoking ban? The gloves are off!
Monday, July 13, 2020 at 14:39 I may have been premature when I suggested last week that an attempt to extend the smoking ban to outdoor dining areas was not an imminent threat.
As I explained six days ago, a Lib Dem peer was calling to extend the smoking ban to outdoor dining areas via the Business and Planning Bill.
I also noted that cross party supporters of the initiative all had links with ASH and that Baroness Northover had thanked ASH for “its assistance”.
Overnight the i newspaper reported that a ‘cross-party group of peers’ is ‘set to force a vote on the issue next week’.
The story was picked by the Mail and the Press Association issued a report too, hence the further coverage it’s been getting.
Last week I warned that while there was no imminent threat of a ban (the government seemed happy to leave things to local authorities and individual businesses) things could “escalate quickly”.
Funnily enough, a small part of me welcomes this initiative if only because it will flush out the level of support it has within government and the hospitality industry.
There is absolutely no justification, on health grounds, to extend the smoking ban to outdoor areas so it will be fascinating to see how this develops.
Update: I was discussing this on Radio Scotland this morning with public health ‘expert’ Linda Bauld.
Linda is never off the air talking about Covid-19 (a genuine public health crisis) but she found time in her busy diary to support a ban on smoking outside pubs.
When I asked her if smoking outside was harmful to non-smokers she admitted there was no “significant risk” but argued that is it still a public health issue because children might see people smoking and be influenced by it.
When I was growing up in Scotland adults were not allowed to take their drinks outside and pubs had frosted glass. It was all to do with shielding ‘minors’ from the sight of adults drinking alcohol.
In my case, and most of my friends, it made us more not less curious about drinking.
Of course, the fact that smokers are outside is a direct result of the smoking ban but instead of supporting indoor smoking rooms the tobacco control industry wants to prohibit smoking outside too.
I had hoped for a bit more common sense from Linda Bauld but anti-smoking campaigners, like leopards, never change their spots.
She even had a sly dig at the source of Forest’s funding, as if this was a killer blow to my argument. Instead it just made her sound like a mouthpiece for ASH.
I like Linda but the gloves are off. She showed herself up for the campaigner and activist she really is.
Reader Comments (5)
They say that smokers are more immune from the virus than non smokers. Some wanker on irish radio recently said there's no place outdoors for smokers now during the virus and when asked where should they go replied they'll have to stand on the road!! Typical isnt it, with students renting houses for parties with 30 or more causing havoc and gangs drinking outside pubs on top of each other and as for masks, what masks? and they are still on about the smokers, there's just no living nowadays, we're all victims now of the social engineering and mind control, its a wonder the PC brigade are not blaming us for the spread of the virus .... watch this space.
Simon,
This has been coming for a long time, because the bullies have been given into by the authorities once before on false science, but like all bullies unless they are stood up to and given the proverbial smack in the mouth they will not stop being bullies. Call me old fashioned but when I was at school in the fifties and sixties, the only time the bullies gave up was when you hurt them physically or mentally it did not matter because once you hurt them they did not like it and then they left you alone because they are cowards at heart The best way to hurt them in today’s situation would be if it comes all smokers and vapers just do not use the pubs and restaurants and cafes at all, let them all go bust and then listen to them scream, but once again it will be too late for a lot of them to recover.
Linda Bauld is a bully. The Government should not listen to a handful of zealous activists over the vast majority who disagree with their world view.
64 people signed a petition so the Govt now lets 64 people decide laws that adversely affect mi!lions. And the Tories want to keep our vote?
The tobacco control persecution of smokers must end. There is true no health rationale for smoking bans. The antismoker 'confidence trick' must be reversed and the campaign of hate and abuse that tobacco control has been waging on smokers for decades must stop.
Every ban should be placed only via Referendum, I think. People must have their rights to decide such things. It should never depend of some bunch of arseholes.