Let smokers smoke.

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A town councillor in the UK is trying to ban smoking in the open air. How do you feel about that?

Town councillor Paul Bartlett wanted to ban any smoking in public in the town limits of Stony Stratford. He claimed that the reason for it was about cigarette butts and that it cost "millions" of pounds to clean up cigarette butts. When that reasoning was rubbished he used the "health" canard. He was photographed for a major newspaper with a load of cigarette butts in his hand. The photograph was taken in a completely different town ten miles away!

An esteemed UK libertarian blogger sent out an idea of meeting in Stony Stratford to protest and nearly 200 people - bloggers, commenters, smokers and non-smokers alike - to an extremely warm reception from the town's residents and the pub where the meeting was held was packed. Conservative MEP Roger Helmer and the UK Independence Party (my party - and in terms of votes was the fourth largest party in the UK at the last general election) leader Nigel Farage spoke movingly at this meeting.

Almost without exception in the town of Stony Stratford he had made himself tremendously unpopular, and a few days after this mass meeting the council had the vote on whether to ban it. Bartlett cowardly withdrew his motion for a public smoking ban, citing his 'worry' over his opponents being unprepared.

Two of the three anti-smoking motions were put before the town and were defeated by 148-2, and one of the two was the councillor himself. The very heated council meeting concluded with residents being seen angrily arguing with the councillor as they left.

So, the only time when a smoking ban has directly been put before anything like real people, it was voted against by a margin of 98.66%.

The problem isn't societal; it's political, as the above shows.

Well, we do have an obesity epidemic.

Do you have any links to the story?

And, here are Winston cigarettes, being marketed to young children

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdHSIquSHMw[/youtube]

Well, we do have an obesity epidemic, plus a lot of diabetes, thanks largely to the soda pop industry.

No one is forcing people to drink that swill. Clean water and fruit juice are much healthier.

ruveyn

I'm with you on that. My 16-year old daughter is an addict.

No there aren't - some people have always been fat - many are happy about it, many aren't.

Just as we drink less in the UK than we did ten years ago.

Just like there are fewer smokers than there were ten years ago.

I actually looked into my insurance company's actuarial tables when I started smoking cigars; their data said no detectable health impact below 2 cigars a day.

I really have to conclude that it's all about the smell and that the health concern is just a justification for rude behavior, especially when we're talking about well ventilated outside areas. Being me, I've taken to open carrying while smoking in public, and have noticed a dramatic increase in politeness in my immediate vicinity as a result...

No, perhaps she just really enjoys it.

Why is there a rush to pathologise everything these days? Some people like soda. I like orange juice and water too. People have different tastes, they mix and match.

Another example of anti-smoker bigotry here (http://taking-liberties.squarespace.com/blog/2011/7/23/snipers-could-soon-snuff-out-smoking.html).

Why do you think the corporations put caffeine in the soda pop? To make it addictive, of course.

Singapore seems to be doing the best job against smoking

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoking_in_Singapore

They have a proposal to make it illegal to sell cigarettes to anyone born after 2000, which should gradually make the country tobacco-free.

http://www.tobaccofreesingapore.info/