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Europe Today
Click on this banner to demand
a Referendum.
Don't let them take away any more of our freemoms. We vote for our leaders in our Parliament, we do not get any say in who rules the EU or what laws they pass.
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'Nazi' claim as Germans rebel over smoking ban
The reason for Germans' refusal to take lying down a law that has now become the norm even in European nations that have traditionally taken pride in their subversiveness - such as Italy, Ireland and Scotland - is repeatedly put down to German history.
Campaigners for smokers' rights have been quick to draw on the comparison between the recent clampdown and the little-known nationwide tobacco ban introduced by the Nazis in 1941 as part of their quest for bodily and racial purity.
While few Germans would dare to point it out publicly, for fear of appearing to praise the Nazi era, some of the most advanced research into the links between tobacco consumption and lung cancer was carried out under the Nazis.
Under the supervision of the Institute for Tobacco Hazards Research, the ban was imposed in every public building and public space, including air-raid shelters, with Hitler even personally intervening in 1944 to ensure it was extended to trains and buses in order to protect young female conductors. It was even pointed out that Hitler, Mussolini and Franco were all non-smokers, while the 'evil enemies' - Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin - all enjoyed a tobacco fix.
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IT IS ILLEGAL TO ASK BAR OWNERS/MANAGERS TO ENFORCE NO SMOKING RULES
According to Italian judment (2005) it is illegal to ask bar or restaurant owners or managers to take on the role of smoke police and to be fined if they do not enforce this law.
As the EU seems to dictate more and more of our laws now, let's hope that they uphold this law
which you can see in its full extent here http://www.raucherbewegung.eu/files/GB_Legal_IT.pdf
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French Smokers March on Cigarette Ban
This is typical French action. We here in the UK kneed to organise ourselves more along these lines, instead of sitting back and taking everything that is thrown at us.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
09:08 PST PARIS, France
Some 10,000 people, mainly tobacco sellers, marched through Paris on Wednesday to protest a smoking ban in French cafes as of Jan. 1.
The demonstrators want a modification to the decree banning their Gitanes, Gauloises and other brands of tobacco in all cafes, restaurants and nightclubs at the start of 2008 so that smoking rooms with ventilation can be set up in the establishments.
Some 10,000 protesters wearing Day-Glo vests marched from the Montparnasse train station to the National Assembly, the lower chamber of parliament, to press lawmakers into adding flexibility to the anti-smoking measure.
The demonstration was one of a handful of protests this month — including crippling rail strikes — of reforms by President Nicolas Sarkozy aimed at modernizing France. The smoking ban was adopted before Sarkozy took office in May, however.
The tobacconists, joined by members of cigar clubs and teahouse owners, insist that changes they are seeking would respect the spirit of the decree.
Rene Le Pape, president of the Confederation of Tobacco Sellers, came away from a Tuesday meeting with Health Minister Roselyne Bachelot disappointed and angry, saying there was a "total blockage."
Tobacconists fear they will lose clients unable to have a cigarette with their coffee and will lose money on other products typically sold in "cafes tabacs" — cafes where cigarettes can be bought.
Those opposed to the ban also fear for the survival of cafes in rural areas, often the only community gathering spot for miles around.
French authorities have been trying to wean the nation off cigarettes in increments for years. A Feb. 1 ban on lighting up in workplaces, schools, airports, hospitals and other "closed and covered" public places like train stations forced France's smokers outdoors — but not out of cafes.