Self-righteous Tories make me sick
Saturday, July 4, 2020 at 15:55 According to the Cambridge News:
A councillor has apologised for smoking on camera during a virtual council meeting.
Liberal Democrat Barbara Ashwood was taking part in the Cambridgeshire County Council communities and partnership committee via video link from her own home on July 2 when the incident [my emphasis] took place.
A Conservative councillor, Lina Nieto, drew attention to the councillor smoking by posting a screenshot on Twitter and commenting that Cllr Ashwood was "having a smoke during committee".
Just think about that for a minute. Nieto didn’t raise the issue during the meeting, which I imagine she could have done and it could have been settled without fuss within seconds.
Instead she took a screenshot of a fellow councillor smoking in her own home and posted it online for all the world to see.
The incident drew criticism from the leader of the county council, Conservative Steve Count, who said on Twitter: “I can’t believe what I’m seeing. We have responsibility for public health!”
He tagged the South Cambridgeshire Liberal Democrat group and said “inappropriate councillor behaviour when on council business”.
Aside from the fact that Steve “I can’t believe what I’m seeing!” Count must have lived a very sheltered life, I can’t help thinking that his faux outrage was driven more by party politics than concern for public health.
Likewise Lina Nieto. Would she have posted a screenshot of a Conservative councillor smoking during a virtual council meeting?
(Sorry, I forgot, no Cambridgeshire Tory smokes because they are virtuous in every way, and every one is a paragon of good health.)
I get that it was arguably unwise for Cllr Ashwood to visibly smoke - even in her own home - during a virtual council meeting, but did it merit the public shaming and apology that followed?
Cllr Ashwood told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “I have apologised and Steve has accepted that apology."
Former Cambridgeshire councillor Lynda Harford was another Tory who took offence, tweeting:
Not a good look at any time but in Committee ...
‘Not a good look at any time’? What a horrible, self-righteous thing to say.
Granted, Cllr Ashford was smoking during a committee meeting (for which she apologised), but if she chooses to smoke in her own home in her own time what has that got to do with Lynda Harford or anyone else?
What comes through loud and clear here is the snobbery that underpins a lot of anti-smoking sentiment. And it’s not just Conservatives who specialise in it.
This morning Ben Cobley, author of ‘The Tribe: the liberal-left and the system of diversity’, tweeted:
This is the saddest, greyest possible morning for any pubs to open at 6am.
I can just imagine the sad lonely alcoholics standing outside the Wetherspoons right now smoking their fags as bits of rubbish blow around their ankles.
I’ve read some condescending comments in my time but that takes the biscuit. Thankfully a lot of people have taken him to task including Conservative commentator Alex Deane who tweeted:
Sometimes the mask slips and one sees what the left really thinks of the proles.
At the time of writing that tweet had 216 retweets and 776 ‘likes’ which suggests that many Tories agree with Alex.
In my experience however those Cambridgeshire councillors are more representative of mainstream Conservative opinion on smoking and other ‘working class’ habits and the party has a long way to go before it shakes off the elitism and sense of entitlement that characterises many of its members.
Until it does the so-called Blue Wall of seats in the north will never be secure and could evaporate just as quickly as the Red Wall of Labour seats before it.
See Councillor apologises after being caught smoking during virtual committee meeting
Reader Comments (6)
Well I am continually smoking when I Skype my friends and family, none of them ever mention it, if they did I think that they are very aware of what my answer would be. The second word would be off, then F off when you get there. Yes there is some sad people about.
Steve Cunt, more likely.
Part of the reason, we are told, why the councillors consider it wrong to smoke during council meetings is that they must set an example. The council has spent a lot of money in helping (bullying?) people to stop smoking so it is "off message" for councillors to be seen to smoke. Of course, it has by passed them that instead of just a few dedicated members of the public witnessing the crime it has been put up on Twitter, the intention being to put it out to a much larger audience. Perhaps the councillor posting that Tweet should also apologise? It could (and should) have been dealt with internally.
The stigma of smoking must be end. There is no harm to others smoking in smoking one’s own home. And setting an example of tolerance is preferable to persecuting smokers and demanding that public officials actively denormalise smoking (effectively stigmatising smokers). Tobacco control’s reign of persecution must end!
She should have turned her camera off so as not to give ammunition to revolting smokerphobic haters. Maybe the fatties will get their faces screen shot next time and humiliated because, y'know, publc health and the obesity crisis.
This attitude from sanctimonious and judgemental Tories about people they expect to keep voting for them is why we so desperately need a third party and why the Brexit Party was and is such a huge disappointment.
If only it could take off the blinkers and realise that voters in this country are desperate for an alternative to these lifestyle bully parties and there are so many issues closer to home - ie - actually inside one's home - than just leaving the EU.
How can we keep voting for parties that persecute, punish and humiliated us?
Yes, I believe class snobbery is at the heart of this. Anti-smoking posturing is a means by which middle-class people can look down on working-class people, thus differentiating their 'enlightened' selves from the dreadful plebs.
Blair's Labour started this weaponisation of class snobbery and, on smoking at least, the Tories have so far done nothing to reverse the trend.