Race to prohibition
Tuesday, March 2, 2021 at 10:38 I was on BBC Radio Wales this morning discussing the new smoking law in Wales.
Just to remind you, the smoking ban has been extended to hospital grounds, school playgrounds and children's play areas with the threat of a £100 fine for those who transgress.
Earlier the Welsh Government told the BBC that they will now move to ban smoking outside cafes and restaurants, and in town and city centres.
There's nothing new in this. The Welsh Government made its intentions clear last year and Covid has no doubt given ministers a thirst for imposing further regulations on the population, regardless of their merit.
What we are seeing though is a road map to prohibition. Pubs may be spared in the next assault on smokers but the direction of travel is clear.
Furthermore with each step the Welsh Government wants to declare itself the 'first UK nation' to ban this, then that.
See 'Wales becomes first UK nation to ban smoking at all hospital sites and playgrounds'.
Heavily influenced by Ireland, Scotland led the way with the indoor public smoking ban but the other home nations quickly followed. Now it's Wales' turn to take the initiative.
If Scotland responds we could have a race to prohibition on our hands. Devolution has a lot to answer for.
Meanwhile it will be interesting to see whether the Welsh Labour Party includes further smoking bans in their manifesto prior to the Senedd election in May.
And how will the Welsh Conservatives respond? If there's an opportunity to put clear blue water between them and Labour it's surely on issues such as this, given the impact on small businesses and the importance of choice and personal responsibility.
My guess is that the Tories will flunk the challenge but it would be nice to be proved wrong.
Reader Comments (5)
Wow - Imagine being so self unaware that you brag about how your country is the biggest bully of vulnerable people and those on low income in the world and you actually celebrate the launch of a hate campaign aimed at targeting minorities who are doing no harm.
Welsh labour is pandering to the worried well Metropolitans and Middle Class healthists. Meanwhile those same thugs have no qualms about suffocating other people and their children with their car fumes and other unhealthy practices that we all have to put up with, as they whizz past their exclusive empty pavement cafes wearing their sweet and sickly perfumes and body products, where the riff raff have been removed to make their five minutes with a sugar free latte or mocha and carrot cake exclusively theirs.
RIP half the restaurants, cafes and pubs in Wales. It looks like Drakeford wants to finish off what is left of Wales after lockdown.
As for me, how sad that after both my elder children were born in Wales, where I spent more than a decide living free and equal, with many friends and family still there, that I am now banned from ever entering the country again based on noting more than the identity forced upon me in 2007. After all smokers smoke. Ban smoking and you ban smokers. For all the dishonesty about attacking the product and hand wringing over saving poor pathetic smokers' lives, that is the intention. It is not about the product. It is about hatred of the consumer. It is about people, aimed at people, and people will suffer as a result..
The puritan bullies' world is too precious to share with others. They demand it all to themselves and the removal of those they do not like the look of. Who's next? Watch out the overweight. They'll be banning you next - because they care of course - but mostly because they can.
RIP tolerant Britain. Welcome to the new era where is it trendy to be a fascist bully and wear your hatred as a mark of pride and signal to the world that no one is nastier than you :'(
Yes, it is a race to Prohibition, long planned by the first minister himself.
Welsh city and town centre smoking ban proposed by Mark Drakeford
12 November 2018
"Smoking could be banned in town and city centres if Mark Drakeford succeeds in becoming the next first minister.
The Welsh Labour leadership candidate has included the plan in his manifesto for the contest."
"Mr Drakeford, considered to be the favourite to win the Welsh labour leadership election, tried to legislate for a partial ban on e-cigarettes in 2016, but the law was binned after members of Plaid Cymru withdrew their support.
His manifesto proposes to "extend [the] smoking ban to outdoor areas of cafes and restaurants and city and town centres".
"It is very important that we press ahead with reducing the level of smoking here in Wales," Mr Drakeford told BBC Wales.
He denied he would want to ban it outright.
"We already have bans on smoking on beaches in parts of Wales. This is a proposal to take this further," he said."
https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/uk-wales-politics-46180030
Like it or not it is down to the Welsh people themselves to get rid of their puritans or else they will find themselves not allowed to have freedom of choice
I once heard Wales described as "..a country where Sunday starts early and lasts several years."
Seriously, why would you ever spend time in such a miserable, neo-puritan hole unless you were being paid to?
Expect more to come.
Wales doesn’t need a nanny-in-chief
10th March 2020
"First minister Mark Drakeford’s priorities are baffling.
Wales is the sick man of Britain. The 20 years since devolution have been a story of failure and decline. And the current leadership of first minister Mark Drakeford offers little hope"
A long list of his various bans and lifestyle meddling -
"In 2016, Wales voted for Brexit by 53 to 47 per cent. But Drakeford has never accepted Brexit. After the Brexit Party won in Wales in last year’s European election – with Labour coming third, behind Plaid Cymru – Drakeford called for a second referendum and said the Welsh government would campaign for Remain.
Unsurprisingly, in last December’s General Election the Conservatives did better in Wales than at any time since 1983. Conservative gains included the post-industrial town of Bridgend. The north Wales coastline became a sea of blue."
https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/03/10/wales-doesnt-need-a-nanny-in-chief/
Since then,of course, he's banned the Welsh from leaving Wales and anyone else from entering.
The Welsh Government's maniacal ban on English visitors will cause lasting damage
Octoberr 2020
"First Minister Mark Drakeford's regime of keeping outsiders out of Wales will have a catastrophic effect on its tourism"
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/comment/welsh-governments-maniacal-ban-english-visitors-will-cause-lasting/
I find his antics quite fascinating and I'm very glad I don't live there.