Re: Bullying Smokers

Thank you Shropshire Girl, I thought that I had put me wrong head on!

Back to smoking .... when I eventually gave up, I put the cash saved aside and then when I had enough saved went out and bought the most expensive perfume that I could find ... it did smell good, and if I had gone back to ciggies, the perfume would have had to be poured down the sink

Re: Bullying Smokers

Same as me M&M, I put a the ten pound note that I would have handed to the shopkeeper every day for that packet of cigs, into a battered old tin in the cupboard. When I had enough I treated myself to a new gold bracelet. Extravagant I know, but I think I deserved it because giving up smoking for the first time in my life after 50 years of smoking, why not ?

Re: Bullying Smokers

Well firstly it was no coal fires to be used for heating Our Homes and water fair enough..( now it costs Us an arm and a leg in Elec' and gas to heat Our Homes)
Then it was no drinking in public (so no nice bottle of wine with Our picnics in the park)
Then no smoking in pubs/clubs/restaurants (I agree 100%)
Now they want to ban smoking out in the fresh air...what's next I wonder,
No eating out of doors or the special police will be after You?
Will They go further and tell Us We shouldn't be out of Our Homes unless We have a valid reason???
where will it all end in this FREE Country of Ours..Hmmm!

Re: Bullying Smokers

Harsh .. and very judgemental if I may say so.
Granted, now the health risks of secondary smoke have been scientifically prove the current level of ban in public places to protect non-smokers is fair enough. I agree, to an non-smoker it must be very disagreeable too without the health implications.

But to lecture about it with phrases like ..
Anyone who publicly creates a dangerous environment for others by whatever means should be prevented from doing so.
Or ..
If I stood outside a pub with a canister of tear gas or mustard gas and decided to let it off other people would rightly complain and have me stopped

is a bit hypocritical, not to mention extreme in comparison.
I could ask you ... do you drive a car?
Should the government stop you driving to protect others health?
Do you fly on planes to go on holiday? Do you in any way, by any activity of lifestyle choice pollute the atmosphere?

You must surely be one in a million if you do not.

Re: Bullying Smokers

I neither smoke nor drink, but quite frankly I would rather spend time with a smoker than a drinker. As a none drinker I have many times watched someone's behaviour change throughout an evening, and it isn't often pleasant. A smoker may smell of smoke but it's doubtful he will be killing innocent people whilst driving, it's doubtful he will go home and beat up the wife and kids. I also find most people considerate when they visit us, they always go outside if they want to smoke. Many people have many habits that I personally find distasteful but it isn't my place to tell them what they can and can't do, I take people for how they are with me not for what their habits are or how they look.

Re: Bullying Smokers

Excellent post Morticia. Speaking as one who suffered an horrendous long flight with a huge woman sat next to me, who literally overflowed into my seat and who sweated profusely and smelt bad, making me feel really ill, I agree with everything you say. I'm not complaining because the woman was huge and no doubt she couldn't help her sweating problem, but the plain fact is it gave me a most miserable 11 hour flight and made me physically ill. Also after a few weeks visit from a long time friend who is now an alcoholic, my guest room smelt like a brewery after she left. So many people are so quick to condemn other peoples "bad" habits but rarely stop to think that they too possibly have habits that offend others.

Re: Bullying Smokers

Well Morticia said it all for me - I found the above post very harsh and ridiculous

Re: Bullying Smokers

Well that's mighty nice of you to concede this ! Lots of smokers even to this day still don't see a problem with smoking in public. They begrudgingly go outside to designated smoking shelters and only because they have been told to do so by the government. Had the smoking laws not been put in place these people would still be polluting public places with their toxic smoke. Historically they have always sheltered behind sheer numbers. i.e. The fact that millions of other people smoke all over the country means it is acceptable for them to do so as well. They had strength in numbers. Never was their any personal responsibility in such decisions, it was a case of "I can, and everyone else does, so I will".

Smokers always knew they were making life very uncomfortable if not unhealthy for other people but they carried on anyway. In their eyes it was a case of "it's their problem not mine, if they don't like the smoke then go somewhere else".

As I said in my first post this is an utterly puerile and selfish stance to take. If 10 years ago I had walked into a pub and set up a wooden block full of Incense Sticks I would have been thrown out. People would have complained. Equally if I sat there routinely setting off stink bombs I would also have been thrown out. Yet smokers for years were permitted to pollute public rooms in their own way. It was and remains utterly ludicrous.

I stand by my statement that no-one should be permitted to create a dangerous environment in a public place.

Your comparison with cars or for that matter any mode of transport is interesting. I can't deny that forms of transport pollute the environment and no it's not acceptable that they do. However, we are an enslaved species and those who control are forcing us in the main to use fossil fuels for all of our forms of energy. Renewable energy sources should be cheap and readily available but they are not. Have you ever wondered why solar panels are so expensive as to be out of the reach of the ordinary folk? There is no reason for them to be, the solar cells can be mass produced quite easily. Further to that, I myself could very easily build my own solar panel. It requires little effort, mostly soldering individual solar cells together and putting them in a suitable frame that can withstand the heat etc. Yet there is no point in me doing this because the controlling powers have implemented all manner of laws and regulations to stop me from achieving my goal. If I made a panel, I would not be permitted to plug it into the National Grid for example. I would also not get house insurance if it was attached to my house and/or plugged into the wiring. Any panel has to meet all sorts of stringent regulations and the average Joe Bloggs would not pass those regs.

All of which is to say that at present we are forced to use the forms of transport that the governments permit which mean fossil fuelled polluting cars, busses, trains, planes, ships and whatever. Yes I could take a bicycle but for long distance it is just not practical or workable.

It comes down to the choices that are available to us. Transport unfortunately is not much of a choice. In the future possibly we will all have electric or hybrid cars maybe powered by hydrogen cells and I welcome all of that. Until then we are stuck with what is foistered upon us.

Smoking is a different matter. It is localised pollution and a health risk and every smoker has the choice to do it or not do it in any public area be that inside or outside. The problem is, smokers in the main will not choose the moral path. They want their fix, they need to feed their addiction and they want to do that in public in social environments. They will never of their own accord cease doing this and that is why laws have to be passed to stop them.

If the government repealed the law tomorrow that prevents smokers from smoking inside pubs and restaurants, they would immediately flock back inside and carry on as before believing it is their God given right to do so. Despite all they know about the health risks to others, and the discomfort they cause others, they would carry on regardless, just as they always did before.

Bottom line is the government HAS to take action to stop them and thankfully that's what they are doing.

Re: Bullying Smokers

We have had all the horrendous figures and stats of what harm smoking did, however where are those same figures showing any decrease since the smoking ban came into force !!!

Re: Bullying Smokers

The 'bottom line' is Realist, we have had enough measures to abide by, now its time to get to grips with the drinkers - that cause far more damage
And, I wish you wouldn't lump 'all' smokers together as the pits - some of us are considerate