Up In Smoke

Smoking appears to be a hot topic in the news at the moment, and it all seems to be quite fitting really, seeing as I am now down to my last pack of Marlboro Lights and am facing the prospect of quitting imminently.  It's not often you can tie personal experience with topical current affairs, is it?

So the Government (obviously bricking themselves after recent high-profile defeats in the commons) have decided to allow a free vote on whether smoking should either be:

a) totally banned in all pubs and private members' clubs.
b) banned in licensed premises except non-food-serving pubs and private members' clubs
c) banned in all premises except private members' clubs.

The free vote means that Members of Parliament will not have to "toe the party line" but can vote how the see fit on the issue.. erm, I mean vote in line with how their constituents who voted them into power wish to see the vote going, of course.

Now, as I get ready to face life as a non-smoker you might think that I'm in favour of the total ban option.  I have quit before (longest time to date: nine months!) and I do remember how yucky it used to be when you got home from the pub and everything you'd worn that night stank of smoke (see, as a smoker, you cannot smell this at all.  One for the smokers, I reckon!).  So I can sympathise with the non-smokers somewhat (although not with all of the people they interviewed on the news this morning, some of whom seemed to be Anti-Smoking Nazis, who not only wanted smoking banned, but also want Smokers hung, drawn, quartered and then the body parts fed to hungry rats).  Plus I also know how difficult it can be, in the first few weeks of quitting, to be out in a smoky pub with temptation all around you (many previous attempts to quit has come undone on a Friday night once the second beer has been supped).

However, you've got to wonder how far this "nanny state" is going to go.  Okay, so you ban smoking in restaurants and pubs that serve food, well no-one like people smoking whilst they eat, but every pub except private members' clubs? 

Hmm... so you're going to allow people to quite happily binge drink themselves to the point where they need a new liver for twenty four hours a day, but heaven forbid anyone should light up a cigarette?  Doesn't this all seem a tad hypocritical to anyone?  And in a time where obesity is killing more than cigarettes I don't see anyone rushing to ban the selling of kebabs to obviously overweight intoxicated punters who eventually fall out of the pubs and clubs after a two-day extended binge-drinking orgy either!

They're an easy target, the smokers, you see..

I wonder who'll be next?

The binge-drinkers?
The partakers of the "Go-Large for 30p" Value Meal from McDonalds?

Don't forget when they ban your particular vice, they'll be doing it with a smiley face, all the time telling you that it's for the good of your health and the health of the nation..

So when you're drinking your glass of wheatgrass and nibbling on a piece of Soya in the new trendy "Salad Bar" on a Friday night years from now, anorexic and sober, don't forget where the rot started..

Jesus, I'm tetchy today.. wonder what I'll be like without nicotine at the end of the week.. tune in later to find out more!

Laters