However, in following the rules the great ingenuity in this country means that pubs bought patio heaters so their outcast customers, who they don't want to lose, can at least avoid getting hypothermia. So what do the powers that be in Westminster and Brussels want to do? Ban the things, where a jumper they say. Ok, I can wear a jumper and coat if necessary, but why the hell should I if the proprieter of a private drinking establishment wants to keep me a customer and keep me happy?
It gets more absurd though, I have just learnt that also in the name of saving the planet they want to ban bloody aircon too. So those of us in the north with die of hyopthermia in the winter, whilst those in Greece and Spain will die of heat exhaustion in the summer. Thus the reduced population will take our carbon emissions down as there will be less people breathing. However, just go back to the rules thing for a second.
When this new law by directive eventually comes, and I don't doubt that it will, who thinks that the Greeks and Spanish are going to listen to it? Exactly. They'll just ignore it. Meanwhile, us 'oh we must follow the rules' Brits will happily enforce it because we just don't seem to get how Europe works. What was it Hague one said? in Europe but not run by Europe? That's the way the rest of them are with their picking and choosing of legal application.
I dream of the day when we finally have a politician that speaks honestly about Europe and just says 'if they write a directive we agree with we'll implement it, if they don't they can bugger off'. That is what being a 'good European' is really about after all. We're oftentold that Britain is awkward, we're only awkward because we falsely assume that everyone else follows the rules too. They don't, and we shouldn't either. Once we get it through our thick skulls that we don't need to create a law for every single EU directive then the world will be a much happier place.
29 comments:
No doubt there will be exemptions allowing the use of air conditioning and patio heaters in and around the EU buildings in Brussels and Strasbourg (how about closing one on those down to save carbon emissions?)
Hypocritical cnuts.
Spot on Dizzy!
Now excuse me whilst I stoke up the old pipe, also putting the AirCon up to full blast.
Taking precautions just in case we are responsible for global warming is a good idea. But on saying that, you also need good ideas to complement the good idea. This isn't one of them. Infact, hardly any of the suggested measures are good ideas. Time to think out of the box.
Same as me, as a smoker, too - and out of the pub.
I dream of the day when we finally have a politician that speaks honestly ...
Stop right there, Dizzy.
Thing is, as a law abiding Brit, I would rather have laws enforced strictly with the quid pro quo being that only sensible and workable laws will be brought it. That isn't the continental way and therefore either we have to change our attitude or get real. I prefer our approach and so I think it's time we got real and got out.
Mussolini wrote in The Big Book of Fascism:
Anti-individualistic, the fascist conception of life stresses the importance of the State and accepts the individual only insofar as his interests coincide with those of the State, which stands for the conscience and the universal will of man as a historic entity.... The fascist conception of the State is all-embracing; outside of it no human or spiritual values can exist, much less have value.... Fascism is therefore opposed to that form of democracy which equates a nation to the majority, lowering it to the level of the largest number -(liberalism implies individualism). We are free to believe that this is the 'collective' century, and therefore the century of the State.
Mussolini is now seeing his dreams realised.
I am in total accord with you on this one Dizzy. Whilst I am not a smoker and do not like the smell of stale tobacco etc,etc, I can`t see why, if a person wants to run a Pub that allows the customers to smoke,that`s fine by me. I would choose not to go there.
Equally,if a person chooses to run a pub that disallows smoking, that`s also fine by me. I would choose to go there.
When a Government chooses to take millions of pounds worth of revenue from tobacco companies, who, manufacture a substance that is deemed dangerous, for those who use it, and those who ingest its by-products, that is called, in my opinion, rank hypocrisy.
Therefore, I choose not to vote for that particular Government, because of their duplicity.
You will note, that the "buzz" word running through my comments, is "Choice".
This is something that the mendacious, controlling, NuLab. Government obviously does not understand !
Come the next General Election, when we all have a "Choice" they will surely find out !
Don't some directives come into force automatically? What you say would work for the directives that have to be implemented using delegated legislation. It wouldn't really work for the others, though, because the courts would enforce them straight away.
Being a member of the EU, but trying to "get away with things"—like a schoolboy doing something behind his teacher's back—seems a bit dishonest. If we don't like it, we should reject the constitution and say that we'll only accept a document which cuts the EU's powers and spending dramatically. Or we could just leave.
I agree that we have to do something. In the areas covered by the EU treaties, it doesn't matter who we elect to Westminster, because policy is decided by unelected commissioners and representatives of other governments. This is not democracy, and we need to start thinking about how we can claim democracy back.
But we still have to pay the buggers....
I hear it's just the gas powered ones that are being banned from purchase, not use. So, expect a rush for them in coming weeks. Also, they say that wood-fired ones are alright, but I can hardly imagine the landlord of the Nag's Head popping down to the local woods for more fuel for the patio fire.
The answer is simple. Get us the hell out of the EU.
What Bill said.
Brown needs to learn to pick and choose (note, not chews!); and Bill can do what he likes as EU writ does not yet run in NZ.
... and how long did the smoking ban last in the European Parliament buildings before they voted to exempt themselsves? Six weeks was it?
A couple of years back hundreds of older folk died of heat exhaustion in Paris.Are they really going to ban air conditioners?
What is the carbon footprint for a cremation?
Where's the link to the air-con ruling?
What are all those Nordic tourists going to do on the Med without a/c?
Even the blessed Margot wouldn't be able to sleep.
I plan to ignore the eu for as long as possible I will only vote for people who want out and will deface that poxy logo at every opportunity.
I may well buy a heater just to annoy them.
I used to smoke. Stopped when I reached 55 and the doctor said you have had a heart attack. I gave up, that was ten years ago. Smokers smell, did you know that? I didn't until I gave up. Your houses smell, and your clothing smells, and your breath smells. Pet owners also fall into that category, they smell, their homes smell, and their pets bite people. People should not be allowed to smoke or keep pets. Fat people should also be banned, it's not water retention it's eating too much food. So for a happier healthy world we need to tell you folk to stop doing what you are doing. Thank you for listening.
Now, Now the Dizster - get with the programme ! If you can't beat 'em, join 'em...
Sign up for my 'free' training programme on how to enforce the smoking and patio heater ban in a few easy steps.
As part of the SS [Secret Service] we will have access to the full, and I mean full, apparatus of the Surveillance State. ID Cards, CCTV, phone tapping, wires, internet surveillance - The Full Monty.
Called Smoking Termination And Service Interruption [Stasi for short] we will track down the recalcitrant smoking 'community' and threaten them with being tortured by their burning fag ends until they take us to the location of one of their 'friends' who has a patio heater.
We then 'take possession' of the patio heater, and use it to lure more smokers away from their cold entrances.
And we don't need to bump off the miscreants - once they have been exposed as 'supergrasses' we just film them 'offing each other' for the night's YouTube entertainment.
You are living in the past Dizzy, and this is the future...
In pubs, it would probably be more carbon-thrifty if they eliminated all of their plasma televisions. A 50-inch high-def plasma TV uses 3 times as much power as an "analog" 34-inch one.
I note that it seems to have been a Lib-Dem who spouted forth first with this gush of hot air.
You need not worry about costing the NHS money. As the BBC programme "More or Less" showed, people with lung cancer die quickly. The people who cost the NHS the most (proportionately) are those who live well into old age and require all sorts of expensive and prolonged medical and geriatric care. Smokers also contribute disproportionately to the costs of the NHS thorough the high taxes on tobacco.
This one struck me and I was writing to the local Paper about it.Its a big issue here because the pubs are dying which means the town is dying as a friendly place.
Its a terrible shame
Air conditioning can actually generate more thermal energy than the electricity used to provide it by extracting heat from the surroundings.
In the same way as Geothermal heating works or condensers.
They can be up to 300% Efficient, in other words, for every Kilowatt of energy of Electrity used by the AirCon system, 3KW of heat are given out.
Quite Naturally, the Petrochem and Private Utility Companies Don't want this Info Getting out so I'd appreciate it if you would keep this to yourself.
http://z4.invisionfree.com/Popular_Technology/index.php?showtopic=2050
http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=3774
I don't smoke, but I would never have brought in the smoking ban if I'd been in charge.
Last week I went to a club I occasionally frequent (I hadn't been there for months) and they had turned one of their upstairs rooms into a big patio with a heater. I was surprised that they had taken the roof off. It was like one of those beach bars in the Med, but it was in Stoke. By this stage I'd had a few, and my friends and the random people at the bar were amused to hear me exclaim "This is OUTSIDE?"
Luxury :)
Sorry to be boring, but I think that Anon from 7:16 pm yesterday has got closer to the real argument than we would like.
I am a rabid non smoker, never liked the habit ever since my teens, always poured scorn on those who indulged; until now.
For this ban, being extended in ever more "imaginative" ways is not about the protection of public health. It is about creating a docile population, who are habituated to do as they are told, when they are told. And its an EU scheme. One of those 'clever' things where the Commissars say to the Provinces "Do this 'voluntarily', or we will bring in regulations". Why else are similar schemes being introduced in France, Germany and elsewhere? Why else do the Commissars feel sufficiently emboldened to remove patio heaters from the equation?
I very much agree with your sentiments that we should decide on our laws and not have them decided for us in Brussels. We have been progressively disenfranchised by stealth, and the Lisbon Constitution ("Treaty") will complete the job.
However, surely the use of patio heaters is morally unjustified, for the simple reason that it wastes resources.
I suspect that there are some other law abiders out there - how likely is it that the Germans do not follow EU laws and they seem to do alright.
Actually Dizzy there are effective alternatives to air-conditioning for cooling buildings (and patios), which run at about a tenth of the costs (in every sense) of air-con.
Fight like Hell. Here in the US the powers that be have ordered the same.
Not all states are "smoke free", but are working toward that notion. It is all to save us from ourselves. Big Pharma works hard to help us do just that!
Just do not take the medication!!!
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