Another Strike in the War on Fun...

Oh, here we go. Yet again the UK media and politicians (read: do-gooders) are having a bash at drinkers and smokers (as is becoming almost a daily habit).

Touting the old alcohol-related-A&E-admissions-costing-the-taxpayer-xxxx-billions card, as usual, they seemed to forget that the vast amount of taxes taken from alcohol sales is what largely fuels the British economy. If it bothers them so much, here’s a suggestion:

Take all the taxes that come directly from alcohol sales and put the money in its own pot. Build some clinics and hospitals specifically for alcohol related treatments, and keep the whole thing separate from the rest of NHS funding. Then see just how much said NHS has in its coffers.

Coupled with the proposal to ban smoking in outdoor spaces this morning, this is yet another attack by the hoity-toity political classes dictating to the rest of the population how to live their lives. They won their fight with banning smoking in the work place, then they poshed-up all of the pubs and kicked out the grass roots clientele. But it’s never enough for the roundheads in society. They will squeeze and squeeze until there is nothing left. If you are part of the minority group who likes a smoke, you must realise by now that there is no such thing as compromise with these people.

Now, that’s not to say I don’t agree to a certain extent about their argument that smoking in public places sets a bad example for kids — over here, the mums hang around outside the school smoking their lives away. I don’t like it. And I would almost go so far as to say a ban on that would be welcome — outside the school. But it goes against my core belief that people should be allowed to live by their decisions, that they should take responsibility for themselves and their families. This concept seems to become more and more alien in Britain, even with a conservative government. What happened to the ‘Big Society’ — people taking responsibility for themselves? Oh, sorry, yes, we all misread that. What they actually meant was: Poor? Sort yourselves out, you’re on your own, while we continue to dictate every tiny aspect of your day-to-day conduct.

By outlawing pleasure pastimes down to this infinitesimal detail, all we will be left with is a bland, sterile society. Might as well trade us in for robots right now, eh?

As I have been told by one local tobacconist here in France, if there is more than one tabac in the village, they are supposed to organise between themselves that one will be open if the other is closed so that people are always able to get their fags. Smoking is considered almost as important as breathing air!

Do-good politicians have almost won the outright ban on tobacco in the UK, and alcohol is next in their sights. It’s all a smoke screen in their war against fun.

Now, get back to work, robot!