I’ll only be happy if banning is banned

Published by Tom

October 11, 2009

I'll only be happy if smoking is banned | Duncan Bannatyne | Comment is free | The Observer.

You need read no more of this appalling article than this;

"Smoking should be banned in cars, and particularly any vehicle with
children in it. On a school visit I met a 12-year-boy who wanted to be
an athlete who told me that every morning his mother lit up when she
was driving to school, even though he'd begged her to stop. He should
be able to report her to the police (my emphasis).

If he could report her to the police, he ought to be ashamed of himself if he chose to do so.

I have never smoked cigarettes, but I have long had my life made intolerable by authoritarians like Duncan Bannatyne. His craving to order the lives of others is a filthy, addictive habit which should not be tolerated in a civilised society.

15 responses to “I’ll only be happy if banning is banned”

QM

October 11, 2009

No bigger fanatic than a recent convert. Guys an authoritarian idiot, like you I’ve never smoked either and like many who haven’t are far more tolerant of smokers than those who’ve just given up.

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Martin

October 11, 2009

I dunno, could work. I mean, prohibition of other drugs was a total success with no negative side effects…
…oh, wait.
Bannatyne: Idiot.

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Zorro

October 11, 2009

Believe me, if smoking in cars is banned there will be deaths. Lots of deaths. In fact there will be goddamn carnage.

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jameshigham

October 11, 2009

Hear hear.

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Moggsy

October 12, 2009

I figure if you really think about it that is really scary.
It’s the sort of thing you used to be rewarded with a “Hero of the soviet union” medal wasn’t it? Oh and no one ever trusting you ever again for the rest of your life.
People who think like he does should never be allowed to be in charge of anything, or anyone.

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JMB

October 12, 2009

Dare I stick my head in here?
Yes people have the right to smoke, they have the right to smoke themselves all the way to their own ill health – not only cancer you know although that is the most well known resultant illness – but they do not have the right to inflict it on the rest of us.
Apart from the dangers of second hand smoke to others it is extremely unpleasant to have a good meal spoiled by others, one’s clothes stinking of cigarette smoke, one’s eyes watering, one’s own asthmatic lungs trying to cope, when one did not even get the “pleasure” of smoking the offending item.
Off the soapbox and to the issue at hand. No I think that smoking should not be banned in cars s such. But it is common courtesy in such a small space to consider everyone present. A smoker does not light up in a non-smoker’s car. That’s a given. In truth a non smoker cannot complain about a smoker doing so in his own car. But they can choose whether to ride with them or not, unless they are family. LOL. Then there has to be some negotiation.
As always what is the true story here? I can read that two ways. Is he begging her to stop smoking in general which she obviously is not going to do? Or to not smoke when he is in the car which she should very well consider if it upsets him? She could smoke all she likes after she has dropped him off.
But banning smoking in cars with minors is coming. Even here. It’s only a matter of time. http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20071206/no_smoking_bill_071206
How it will be enforced is another story.

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Lord T

October 13, 2009

The whining little git could walk to school if he was really bothered.

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Tom Paine

October 13, 2009

Once again, dear JMB, you are confusing morality – or perhaps even mere courtesy this time – with law. I don’t mind your “shoulds.” I might even agree with them occasionally, but I don’t think the state should enforce them by violence (and the state has no other method, let’s not delude ourselves).
Not everything that is “wrong” should be banned, or how are we to know who is kind and courteous like you?

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Tom Paine

October 13, 2009

Hear! Hear! If he were my son and spoke of his mother thus, I would give him a damn good thrashing – New Labour’s namby-pamby laws or no.

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JMB

October 13, 2009

Err, I was agreeing with you in this instance. Did a little introductory antismoking rhetoric obfuscate that fact? Sigh.

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JMB

October 13, 2009

LOL. Slight embellishment of facts here? Actually we have no idea what the young man said to his mother, nor even what he said to old Duncan from that. But don’t let that stop you. 🙂
I can imagine you writing that with great glee and tongue in cheek. 🙂

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Tom Paine

October 14, 2009

My apologies, pressure of work and all that. I missed the non-offending words “No I think that smoking should not be banned in cars as such”
If I smoked, I would certainly ask before lighting up in a confined space, as a matter of courtesy. If I was discourteous, however, I would expect to lose respect, or a friend, not my clean police record. So yes, we are in total agreement.

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Tom Paine

October 14, 2009

We know how he spoke “of his mother”, to the odious (and well-named) Ban-natyne, if the latter’s account can be trusted.

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JMB

October 14, 2009

Err my turn to apologize. No pressures of work to excuse me. Those damned English prepositions!

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Moggsy

October 14, 2009

Realistically the kid has probably been bombarded with what boarders on propaganda telling him his Mom will very soon be dead because she smokes and he an orphan.
I expect he likely loves her and is trying to get her to stop for her own good.
I am still a bit suspicious of the secondary smoking research. ‘They’ need that to have any real claim to stop people smoking.

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