Counting Down To The Smoking Ban
The smoking ban in England comes into force at 6am tomorrow [Sunday], from which time all enclosed public spaces must be smoke-free, or face a large fine. Some pubs have erected outdoor areas for smokers, and at least one plans simply to provide hi-vis jackets for the use of smokers. And one other plans to attempt to circumnavigate the ban by becoming the official embassy of an uninhabited island. Some pubs also plan to offer passive resistance to the ban by continuing to allow smoking on their premises.
For myself, I am both very much looking forward to the ban and despising it. As I have written before, I very much dislike smoking - but it is the market which should decide whether or not pubs allow smoking through their choice of watering hole, not the government though draconian legislation. If the law had even some way for pubs to continue to allow smoking - such as through a certain level of ventilation and the granting of a licence - I could offer little argument against it, and would certainly feel far less inclined to oppose it considering my dislike of smoke. But it does not, and is thus an authoritarian law which has no place in Great Britain.
There are only a few short hours in which freedom to smoke - indeed to freedom to choose - exists in England. For in eight hours time, the smoking ban will come into effect. I wonder what will be next on their list of things to ban? Probably alcohol next, as I predicted before, because it is “bad” for us - and thus we should not be allowed to do it. Well fuck them. They better not even fucking dare to think of it.
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I don’t smoke…but if I was in England I think I would have before the ban hit
(I used to smoke)