THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG

So many people have taken and accepted for granted the ban on smoking in enclosed public places. I have heard it said hundreds of times, 'Oh well, I suppose it was inevitable'.

I disagree 100%, as Benjamin Franklin said, 'Only two things are certain in life, death and taxes' I certainly don't remember him mentioning anything about banning smoking.

If a person doesn't want to smoke, or breath in other people's smoke, then that is their decision and their right. Just as it should also be, for those people who do wish to smoke. According to the laws on equal rights, and the European Human rights laws, everyone should be free to make their own choice of lifestyle, as long as that lifestyle doesn't cause harm to others in any way.

There is only one way, which would be completely fair to both smokers and non smokers, and that would be to allow recreational venues to decide for themselves, whether to allow or to disallow smoking, this would also apply to the staff that worked in such venues.

This method of dealing with the smoking issue works perfectly well in Spain, where each establishment displays a sign on their door telling the prospective customer whether it allows smoking or bans smoking. Everybody is happy, and all people are treated as equal.

People say that cigarettes are bad for your health, but so to, are many other things, such as fumes from motor vehicles, aeroplanes, electricity generators, and many types of industrial machinery. So what are we supposed to do, ban every single thing that isn't good for us?

At the moment, the Government's latest targets are alcohol, and fatty foods. I wonder how the average anti smoker would feel if faced with bans on these two items?

It doesn't matter if you are a smoker or a non smoker, the fact is that we are all human beings, and as such should be given the same human rights as each other. We are constantly told that people who take heroin or cocaine are addicted to it, and as such, we should feel pity for them, and try to help them. The same applies to alcoholics, but I am sad to say that no such sympathy applies to the smoker, who most would admit, is an addict, just as someone on drugs or alcohol is.

We are supposed to be members of the EU, and as such, should share the same laws, rules, and regulations as the other member states. But our Government, in all its hypocritical ways, decide for us, which of those rules we should have, and which we should not have.

If it is something they can charge us all for, then we have no choice but to obey EU laws, but if they cannot make money out of it, then they decide for us, as they have done with the smoking ban.

In Italy, the law states that bar owners or restaurant owners cannot be made liable to stop people smoking in their premises. That, they say, is a job for officials and law enforcers. Yet here, once again, our Government put the onus on the proprietor, and make him/her accountable.

The problem isn't just about smoking, that is just the tip of the iceberg. It is about the erosions of our freedoms. Today it is smoking, tomorrow it will be alcohol, then food, and then what?

Cast you mind back a couple of years, who would have believed then, that the friendly old man, sitting in the corner of your local, happily rolling up his half ounce of Old Holborn into skinny little matchstick thin weeds, and puffing away on them, as he laughed and chatted to his mates, would, in such a short period of time, become the enemy of so many people?

That old man could be your father, my father, he could be you, or me. But now, we are being taught to hate that old man, we are told that he is a mass murderer, intent of killing our children.

My father certainly didn't try to kill me, or anyone else for that matter, and neither did any of the other fathers I knew, and I am still here, along with my contemporaries, all of whom, had fathers who smoked.

The experiment in taking away people's right to smoke, which they have enjoyed for hundreds of years, has been in existence since July 2007, and apart from much groaning and moaning, has met little real resistance.

The Government got away with this injustice on our liberties by using a very carefully laid out plan, which involved illegally making the bar owner/landlord/proprietor, responsible for policing the law. This of course meant that any opposition to the law, in the way of customers openly flouting it, could end with the proprietor loosing their licence.

The ban was also followed up by a never ending string of TV and newspaper adverts, as well as carefully timed propaganda releases to the media, each one giving off more information as to how many people are supposedly dying each day through passive smoking, even though there has never been any scientific proof to support this, and the figures oppose each other with every new release.

They have bombarded us with "facts" on how passive smoking kills those around it, shrinks babies in the womb, stops your sex life, makes people go blind, stops young children from growing to normal height, lessens their learning abilities, plus of course, all the usual things which we have come to learn over the past few months, such as making our hair, clothes, skin, and breath, stink. I find it very strange, that no one stunk before the 1st July 2007!

So what are we going to do when the next imposition comes into being? Whether it be alcohol or food or motor vehicles, you can bet your life that everyone affected will do their usual moaning bit, but will it go any further than that? Not if the smoking ban is anything to go by it won't.

We have let this Government get away with too much, and the only way to stop them is to find a political party that will agree to give us, the people of this country their freedom back again. I for one, would vote for that party, and I suspect that millions more would also.

Is that party the Conservatives, or the Lib Dems, or will we eventually find what we are looking for elsewhere?