Stop Press! Douglas Alexander, in a move clearly designed to take attention away from his "Lalalala I'm not listening" over road pricing, has just announced that,"The Government announced last year that restrictions on smoking in enclosed workplaces, public places and vehicles would be introduced in England from July. This will save thousands of lives over the next decade by reducing both exposure to hazardous second-hand smoke and overall smoking rates.That's right, they plan to ban smoking on boats, how they will enforce this I really have no idea. Unless we're about to see adverts in the Guardian for Smoking Patrol troops which will hang around 6 miles off-shore doing random spot checks to make sure the fishermans' friends are not having a sly roll-up.
"We now intend to introduce similar provisions to provide protection from second-hand smoke for people on vessels operating in UK waters, both at sea and on inland waterways."
As far as I know, smoking is banned inside on ferries already, so god know how the second-hand smoke can even apply to a cross channel ferry a mile off the coast of Portsmouth. Thus one conclusion can be drawn.
The Department of Transport and Douglas Alexander are spinning a story of a total gimmick, unenforceable, silly policy presumably in the hope that we will all stop talking about an online petition at Downing Street that continues to grow by the hour.
Image shameless lifted from Guido
15 comments:
Ah, well.
A lot of US states have banned smoking in the workplace now (which takes out smoking in bars, etc, as it does in the UK). I can't think that stepping outside right now, -15C, a foot of snow and more coming, is very good for your health even before you spark up.
Incidentally, is there an accounting not of how much 'smoking-related illness' costs the NHS but of that with the expected cost of a non-smoker living longer subtracted (and as the majority of NHS spending is on dying people and everybody, apart from me, is going to die, the expected non-smoker death cost should also be subtracted)? I have seen brute 'cost of smoking calculations' but not the ones that are suitably adjusted for expected non-smoker costs and death.
Also, how can anyone put a price on looking cool?
And can I mention again how much snow there is here? Jesus.
On the plus side, 2 hours north of here, they got 10 feet in 4 or 5 days.
I used to like snow, when I only saw it once every other year and it melted two days later.
so it's snowing you say?
Funny you should ask.
Snowing like a bastard.
UPDATE:
STILL SNOWING
Yeah, yeah. And we note that the Houses of Parliament are exempted from the smoking ban, of course.
It's one law for them, etc. etc.
DK
You don't understand Dizzy. This is not a law to be enforced, as such, but it will SEND A SIGNAL. Recognise the phrase? We hear it quite often now.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!
Yep, I spotted this too. The consultation document is hopeless - full of contradictions and confused about exactly how the MSA 1995 can be amended in time for 1st July.
No doubt they were panicked by the thought of Thames Cruisers being a haven for naughty smokers, with mass digits being raised by puffing passengers as they chugged past the Commons terrace.
The proposed ban even applies to the little 25 foot charter fishing boats; normally the skipper with a soggy roll-up hanging from his lip in the wheelhouse is as much of a fixture as the bait bucket.
And are the lads from the MCA (who are being asked to enforce this stupidity) really going to board a Chinese freighter on passage within the UK 12 mile limit and issue £30 spot fines to the crew for smoking on the mess deck? And fine the captain £2,500 for allowing it?
This one's going to be fun for Raedwald over the next few weeks ...
I can't get the Downing Street petition to work. When I click on the confirmatory e-mail nothing happens. Have the blighters put a stop on it, or is it just overloaded?
'Snowing like a bastard'
How does a bastard snow?
With poor breeding.
Maybe 18" so far. Cleared the driveway after about 14", took over 2 hours.
My head was covered in ice crystals. No fun.
The law is a crock. At some point no one will bother with it, and the rule of law will be held in contempt. I certainly will flout his law whenever possible. I no longer feel they have any right to make laws that tell me what to do, and all this shit about second hand smoke is bollocks and fake science.
As this inept and corrupt government pass all the legislation that the EU send to it, without even checking it. I have no guilt in totally ignoring this unfair and draconian law! Labour are fuckwits!
Ya, its really good to ban smoking on ferries. There was a great fight between the two ferry travellers during my 2005 ferry travel to France. Actually, one was non smoker siting in the bar and got fought with the other smoker passenger since the no smoking banner was not there. It is good actually banning smoking on ferries!
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