Freedom-2-Choose

The cost is now immaterial

noreply@blogger.com (handymanphil) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 08:51:02 PST

As we enter yet another year of smoke ban frenzy and new sets of figures continue to praise the 'great success' of the worst law ever passed since the 1790's we find that the cost of quit smoking implementations last year (alone) was £84.3m-absolutely unbelievable! That's yet another massive chunk of the nations finance gone to waste.

One wonders (on many, many occasions actually) just how low these anti smoking zealots will stoop to ruin many a smokers enjoyment but today's news article gives you some indication as we now have market stalls springing up to attract smokers to become non smokers. It is well known that Jan/Feb are the major 'quit campaign' months as people still adhere to the old fashioned rubbish of New Year resolutions-99% of which are quickly broken. I can't really see people queueing up after they have bought their veg & salad to sign up for a quit smoking course on a freezing cold day can you? "A pound of Golden Delicious, 2lb of Brussels, a packet of tomato's and a 'quit kit' please - doesn't really ring true does it!

One has to contemplate the fact that perhaps, just maybe, there is not a soul in this country that is not aware that we are in the middle of the biggest persecution era of modern times. Now, it seems, shoppers are to be harassed as they wander around their local market place thinking of the necessities needed to accompany the roast beef the following day!

Apparently ' Between 2010 and 2011, 377 people living in Furness and Millom quit through their GP, pharmacy or the stop smoking service, but smoking rates remain higher than many parts of the UK. '

Given that it is governmentaly accepted that a smoker has quit at a minimal 4 week period but in actual fact only 5% of original 'quitters' actually succeed, it means that only 16 or 17 people actually managed to completely quit smoking. Wowee-what a stupendous achievement that is!

On the other side of the coin, whilst these anti smoking bigots wage their relentless war on the smoker yet another social outlet has gone into administration. 'Calco' who operate 79 pubs in the west Midlands have suffered the fate of thousands of other pubs - they can't afford to exist in the present 'smokerless climate', engineered by the social engineering by the likes of ASH, CRUK et al. Falling sales, lack of customers as smokers keep walking have wreaked havoc within the industry yet such as Cecilia Farren are relentless in their pursuit of a smoke-free nation and care nothing for the poverty & homelessness they cause.

Cecilia Farren, a very ripe big cheese in Tobacco Control.

If we look at the fight for justice we can easily see that the legal system has been corrupted in favour of the anti smoking brigade as smoking related offences have been financially penalised far more severely that any other minor crime brought to the courts attentions these past 4 years. A Manchester shisha bar was fined £5,000 + £2,174 costs,

a total of £7,194 for allowing smoking in what was a bar set up for smoking! Some lunatic, out of his head on drugs smashes a shop window and ends up being fined £60! An Irish bar has been similarly slaughtered as a Killarney licensee has been fined £2,000 + £1,750 costs & (to cap it all) £500 "witness costs"-what the hell are they and where did they emanate from? And just to tot it all up he now faces losing his licence altogether. The courts are merciless when it comes to smoking orientated persecutions/prosecutions.

Whilst in Ireland we have heard the sad news that our friend and fellow anti ban warrior Chris Carter has finally been rejected by the High Court in Belfast. His story started 4 years ago when he closed his business down as he couldn't build a smoking room on the side of his offices (another 5 people rendered jobless) so, in protest, he went and smoked a cigarette in the council offices-yes, Shock! Horror! (but nobody died as a result of their exposure.)

Chris has fought a long and tedious battle with the Irish courts as they have pulled every trick in the book to thwart him-even disallowing his right to call Irish Ministers (then) to the witness stand as they knew that Chris would unveil them as the liars & cheats they are.

It seems not to worry these people either that the dole queues are extending, every single time a pub closes (don't forget that every 10,000 new Job Seekers claimers cost the government £1.53m per WEEK), in fact they do not care about the costs anymore, the costs have become immaterial! Economists have assessed the cost to this country thus far at £19bn, give or take a tenner-what sort of lunacy is this we are witnessing?

Chris Carter, smokers freedom fighter.

In refusing Chris's case, the judge has decreed that it is quite OK to forgo our sovereignty, our human rights and our freedoms in order that this law may prevail. It has been now ordered that Chris pays the £1,250 fine imposed 4 years ago or trots off for 47 days in prison. We cannot let that happen folks so simply nip over to http://smokersjustice.co.uk/ and help Chris avoid the indignity of such a fate. A special fund has been set up for him over at SmokersJustice so we must do our best for a man that has given all he had to give in fighting this despicable ban and now has serious heart problems to boot!

The legal system has been turned on its head by this draconian law as the persecution & prosecution of smokers increases week by week. But even saying that it is increasing is showing that more and more people are against this law and what it is doing to our nation as it is only the fanatical loons like Farren, Duffy, Arnott et al that keep beating the dying drum that SHS is the worlds biggest killer (mind you, if I were on their wage scales I suppose I would too). The fact that SHS has never been proven to kill anyone (yet carbon monoxide has) seems to have nothing to do with their arguments!

But, to go back to where we started, such is the furore about smoking that it not only seems that smokers have NO rights, the costs of obliterating smokers is immaterial!

'Be Jaysus, they've got it'!

noreply@blogger.com (handymanphil) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 02:59:41 PST

Another bar gone, it's enought to drive you to drink!

A report has been published today, online. showing that Ireland is losing a substantial number of drinking venues; ten percent actually-since 2007. Now being Ireland there would have to be a good reason for all these closures and the 'Drink Driving Laws' have been cited as the main cause! Yep, you read that right my friends, it the combination of the drinking and the transportation to & from said watering hole that is the main cause. Amazing!

A junior minister has weighed into the argument stating that tourism is being affected by all this and says that the government need to do something to avert a tourism disaster: hilarious.

Meanwhile, Padraig Cribben, president of the Vintners Federation of Ireland, said lifestyle changes and other factors were to blame. Hmmm, let me see now. The only lifestyle change that has been effected is the smoking ban, but more people smoke now than before the ban, so how the hell.....?

Of course, silly me, more people are smoking but they can't smoke in the pubs & bars anymore in case bar staff drop like flies from the deadliest form of gas known to man SARIN GAS, oops, sorry, SHS!

He also blames cheap supermarket beers, just as the same pathetic people do in England, but they fail to see that had smoking indoors NOT been banned in the first place the supermarkets would not be profiting from the pubs miseries!

He also said that 7,000 jobs were lost last year with the severe prospect of another 4,000 this year, which is not good news - especially for a country that was 'force voted' into the EUSSR Titanic and was given 1st place in the race for EU bail-out funds. Quite simply their economy cannot withstand a continuous rise in unemployment - but that's what they are seeing. The best of it is that they cannot see what is happening under the guidance of their EU masters who are destroying the very economy they are trying to set up; they might as well call it the 'eurodolemoney' because the smoking bans will slowly but surely strangle most economies, except of course the Netherlands who have shown absolute common sense and saved their nation!

"The Government needs to sit up and take stock of what is happening here. We are a major asset to this economy and all we are looking for is a level playing field," Mr Cribben added.

'Be Jaysus, they've got it'!

Humiliation of we happy breed.

noreply@blogger.com (John Baker) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:22:34 PST

In my last blog post called We happy breed. We who enjoy smoking are on our own! I waxed not so lyrical about the tobacco companies running scared of the display ban and refusing to fight it last Saturday and one of my commentators, sillyusername, pointed out that Norway has had a display ban for the past two years and gave some observations:

I don't know if this is relevant, but it is worth considering. A display ban has been in operation here in Norway for about two years now. This has had no significant effect on tobacco sales at all. Perhaps in the light of this experience and similar experiences in some Canadian provinces the tobacco companies, having lost no money to display bans feel that challenging them is a waste of money. It's all about the money on both sides of the tobacco divide.

In reply I agreed with sillyusername that money was, and always has been, a tour De force in shaping the denormalisation of smokers, both for the recipients adversely affected by such bans and the businesses that have to employ them on pain of financial suicide or even jail time for daring to fight for their businesses or principles and the bodies that call for such draconian measures. They were in the minority as the majority of landlords and pubcos rolled over and said "kill me quickly." To my mind both the anti smoking fake charities, as they are fondly called by us smokers, and the tobacco companies are two sides of the same coin, as long as the money keeps rolling in they shortsightedly cannot see that one side is sliding a noose over the others neck.

As for the display ban I now have first hand experience of it when I visited my local ASDA store today. The tobacco display had two sliding doors on it that it did not have on it yesterday and on the counter was a list of tobacco products that I had difficulty reading even with my bifocals on, the writing was that small. And the display ban is three months away before ASDA has a legal duty to hide tobacco products. If I was not so angry I would have felt humiliated and shamed but I did not, and never will as I fight such legislation, I will not be made to feel dirty for enjoying tobacco so well done ASDA for kicking your smoking customers in the teeth before it was necessary, customers who only buy tobacco products AFTER spending shit loads of their well earned money in your stores.

Anyway, enough of my rant about this, I'll let Dave Atherton speak on behalf of smokers and anyone else denied their freedom of choice about their lifestyle choice as he is interviewed on radio.

The first person interviewed is one Paul Hooper, a well paid ASH propagandist who is well known to Freedom2Choose,Tony Blows and his wife. Paul Hooper attended court where Tony was handed down a £17,000 legal bill for defying the smoking ban and while Tony was being sentenced Hooper gave a hangman sign to Tony's lovely wife, using his tie as a noose, while she waited for Tony's fate outside, lovely man, ain't he. Here is some info on Paul Hooper:

Contact: Paul Hooper
Email: ph7@blueyonder.co.uk
c/o Warwickshire Primary Care Trust
Westgate House, Market Street
Warwick CV34 4DE
Tel: 07836 631 597