This historic date sees smoking in public enclosures banned – unless it happens to be cannabis of course. A life-long pipe smoker, I am now in danger of finding myself arrested for pursuing my habit of puffing Condor Ready Rubbed in a banned area and explaining to the courts why I should not be locked away as a public menace, whilst dope smokers remain free to indulge in illegal substances, at great danger to themselves and the public at large.I’ve never heard of a tobacco smoker pushing someone under the wheels of an oncoming train. Neither have I heard of a crazed Woodbine addict leaping from the top floor of a Greek hotel. And I haven’t come across a vicious mugger attacking and robbing an innocent victim, to finance his craving for a packet of Rothmans Number One.
I make no excuse for tobacco smokers, in fact I consider cigarette smoking a filthy habit and keep my distance from the pungent stink. Not so, with that diminishing breed of faithful pipe smokers who tend to be calm, cool and collected and usually real gentlemen ‘of the old school’, who still give up their seat to a lady. And yes – I know Stalin and Goebels smoked pipes, but in any walk of life there’s always a ‘bad apple’ to spoil the image. Once there was a quaint competition for “Pipe Smoker of the Year”, which attracted celebrities from all over the world and they were even issued with their own Handbook. Presumably the future will see “Cannabis Smoker of the Year”. Mind you, there is still a debate over what substance Sherlock Holmes stuffed into his pipe bowl?
“Smoking Kills” warns the stark message on all tobacco products sold in Europe, and it appears that the manufacturers have shot themselves in the foot! But why pick on smokers only for this stark warning, when so many other potential ‘weapons’ are freely available as killers in our midst? Most stores sell lethal-looking kitchen implements that any self-respecting thug would be proud to include in his armoury. If you had to choose, I reckon most of us would take a chance on death from tobacco, than having a carving knife thrust between the shoulder blades.
A motor vehicle in the wrong hands can prove to be a far more lethal weapon and has caused much more human misery than any puff of the nicotine weed and even the innocuous chocolate bar can become a killer under certain conditions. So why aren’t these alternative killers targeted with the same venom as tobacco? Personally, I would prosecute all mobile telephone users who display a total lack of disregard for their fellow beings in public places. As well as frying their own brains, the anger and stress these morons cause to those of us seeking peace and solitude is out of all proportion to the importance of the twaddle they invariably speak. And more seriously, why doesn’t society equally concern itself with the suspected consequences of phone masts on the health of our children, where clusters of cancers are often found near their location? Why aren’t these labelled “Mobile Phone Masts Kill”?
How many people have you seen smoking in church? No – nor have I. However, this hasn’t stopped the anti-smoking zealots at the Department of Health sending out warning notices and colour brochures costing thousands of pounds in postage alone, to around 25,000 churches in England and Wales instructing them to display prominent “No Smoking” notices in future. One alert clergyman has pointed out that the information packs were despatched on February the First – Ash Wednesday, which suggests that at least someone in government possesses a sense of humour. I will be interested to learn how this ban will affect religious services where incense burning is an integral part of proceedings. The Minehead Branch of the British Legion has already succumbed to this dictatorship and removed paintings from its walls depicting groups of people where some appear to be smoking. A terrifying image I imagine for its members, who have experienced first-hand the ravages of war.
Smokers, like car drivers and Council Taxpayers, are an easy target for the new Socialist Puritans to attack and can simply be clobbered by the system without too much aggressive opposition. Self-righteous busybodies who get their kicks from exerting power over others, even if not directly affected, will welcome July the First.
Next time you watch the coffins of our military dead being off-loaded at a remote British airfield, just reflect on how public attitudes have been conditioned to accept this continued distressing situation, yet at the same time can be so intolerant of smoking. It’s not the smoking that makes me sick!
QUESTION: If smoking is bad, why is it used to cure haddocks?
THE MESS THAT IS THE NEW LOGO representing the London Olympics significantly reflects what is fast becoming a fiasco on a par with “The Dome”. And its eye-watering cost of £400,000 to create, symbolises the carefree attitude to spending that sees London Council Taxpayers bearing a large part of the overall cost of mounting the Games in 2012.
What we now have is the type of graffiti displayed on every available space on the railway network into London. Perhaps the designers were inspired by this vandal’s pop-art, achieved in minutes with an aerosol paint can. It would certainly have been much cheaper if created under darkness by a hooded figure, whilst carefully avoiding the live rail and British Transport Police.
As a former student of Harold Beck (creator of the London Underground map), I feel ably qualified to give a professional opinion on this latest design, described as striking, vibrant, colour-changing animation. Maybe I am a traditionalist, but I rather liked the original concept depicting the River Thames flowing between the Olympic rings. It was aesthetic, simple and immediately recognisable and would have been a lot less expensive to reproduce in the various mediums. Lord Coe has described the new monstrosity as ‘ambitious’; I think he must have been talking about himself. Having seen the preview in its animated format on TV, it will have the nation rushing out to SpecSavers. It has the same affect on the eyeballs as flashing disco lights and presenters will need to issue a warning to viewers to “look away”, or risk an epileptic fit.
London is the capital city of the world and deserves a Capital letter, unless we are now dropping the basic rules of the English Language in our haste to distance ourselves from our ancestral past. The only thing I find more disturbing than the logo itself, is that it now sees me agreeing with the disagreeable Ken Livingstone. who also hates it
AS I SIT IN MY GARDEN early on this spring morning, enjoying the first coffee of the day and watching the antics of the squirrels competing for nuts and early birds flitting about the trees – I reflect on how grateful I am to my natural mother for not aborting me. I was eleven when I learned that I was illegitimate, but this had no great significance for me at the time; being absorbed in my schoolwork and the latest Test Match scores.
I can’t help thinking now that if my surprise arrival had taken place several decades later, she might well have opted to have me terminated and I would never have known the joys of nature and my early morning experiences in the garden. Neither would I have enjoyed the immense pleasure that my young granddaughter brings to my life. I can only imagine the stigma that my mother must have endured back then and the trauma she went through, knowing her life had been ruined for a moment’s indiscretion. But she must have also been very brave and that but for this, I wouldn’t now be writing this column. Life is a truly precious commodity – and I rather belatedly thank her for mine.
I WATCHED THE TORTURED FACES of missing Madeleine McCann’s parents as they were presented to the Pope and couldn’t even begin to imagine how they were feeling. On the same day I watched the grinning faces of the Blair’s as they regally conducted themselves across Africa. Seeing our PM warmly embracing Colonel Gaddafi of Libya, I wondered if the Blair’s gave a brief thought for the McCann’s, or the families of the 270 victims of the Lockerbie atrocity eighteen years earlier and I felt nothing but loathing and contempt for them. Not in my lifetime have we had such an arrogant, deceitful, self-promoting Prime Minister. The nearest to him was possibly Harold Wilson, but at least he had the decency to take his holidays at his own expense in the Scilly Isles – and he smoked a pipe.
Can you recall any other statesman in modern times ending his or her term of office in such a flamboyant manner? Most have been content to quietly leave by the back door with their coat collar pulled up and hat brim firmly pulled down, allowing the spotlight to fall on their successor. In some Oriental and East European countries they would be lucky to escape with their lives intact. Recent British Prime Ministers have at least had the decency to wait until they were out of office before embarking on a grand tour, ensuring that the taxpayer did not have to foot the bill.
This actor-impostor currently strutting the world stage obviously feels no shame for the destruction and demoralisation he has caused at home. His arrogance was in full view as he was being féted by the people of Sierra Leone, who crowned him as an honorary tribal chief. His mind must have been a million miles away from the problems back home; from the latest casualties of war, the patients dying from killer bugs in our hospitals, the increasing gun and knife crime on our streets and in schools, or the cancer patients being denied drugs on the NHS. It’s doubtful he was thinking of the widow and family of Doctor David Kelly and it’s a fair bet he won’t have been thinking either of the cruel plight of missing Madeleine’s parents.
He shouldn’t have been allowed back into this country.
I HAVE NEVER REALLY come to terms with calling Headmasters and Headmistresses Head Teachers. Somehow, the loss of gender in the title lacks gravitas. But don’t worry, this is of no consequence now that the progressives have come up with something completely new: LEAD LEARNER. This is how the headmaster of an Islington primary school wants to be known, because he explains teachers never stop learning. This revelation comes just days after Education Secretary Alan Johnson decreed that children seeking their teacher’s attention should no longer put up their hands if they know the answers, because it is not fair he says, on those who DON’T know the answers.
Our education system appears to be under the direction of characters from Alice in Wonderland. It wouldn’t be so bad if there had been a general improvement in standards since the progressives took over in the 50’s – but it’s patently obvious that this is not the case.
ANOTHER POLICE OFFICER IS CALLOUSLY MURDERED doing his duty to protect the public. I don’t subscribe to the routine arming of the police, preferring that we had draconian laws to protect them. Can any decent person explain why the State execution of those who murder police officers and children is not acceptable? I’m not interested in the ‘intellectual’ argument that this is barbaric punishment in a civilised society, because there can be nothing more barbaric than the deliberate killing of one person by another. You may wish to follow my example by not voting in General Elections until Parliament has the moral courage to act decisively and deliver the Death Penalty in such proven cases.
Or is PC Jon Henry to be just another statistic, until the next time?
HAVE A GOOD SUMMER.