Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Legislating for irresponsible parents....?

Great! here we go again. This morning's Times is leading on a call from doctors to ban smoking in cars to protect children from passive smoking, oh yes, and banning us from smoking outside in public places like parks where kids might be.

Don't get me wrong here, I can see the point about smoking in cars when you have a kid in there. I don't smoke in the car when I have Dizzy Jr in it as a matter of course, and I don't smoke in the house when he's there either.

Why should there be legislation creating a blanket ban though? If two adult smokers are in a car, why shouldn't they be allowed to smoke? What right does anyone have to come into private space? As for this idea about parks, it's outside, so unless someone is deliberately blowing their smoke in the faces of children, is the presence of some cigarette smoke in the atmosphere really any worse than the fumes from cars driving past?

What next, a ban on cars using roads near parks?

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