Smoking...

[Last Ten]

I think Douglas Corporation should introduce this no smoking policy to the whole of the Douglas Borough!

 

We went down to the bottom of Bray Hill last night to watch the practices and a group of selfish twats all decided to hitch up (bearing in mind we are all squashed in the crowd like sardines to see some action)well that was it for us and others we had to move because of their selfish filthy dirty stinking habit

 

Rant over

 

LT

[spangle]

This interference in other people's lives is what makes modern life increasingly intolerable.

 

Agreed, but I still don't want a smoker interfering with my life by making me inhale his smoke!

 

That's your problem - buy an oxygen mask.

 

This is the open air we're talking about. If we we're that concerned about our children's lungs we wouldn't invite 40K bikers and their filthy exhausts here, but at some point we have to accept a tiny bit of inconvenience in our lives.

 

At the end of the day there would be no need for rules if just a tiny degree of thought was given to where people spark up. I have no objection to any adult having a quiet fag on the periphery around the park away from the kids, the problem is caused because there are some people who think its perfectly acceptable for example to stand at the baby swings pushing and puffing. Its not nice for anyone apart from the smoker. I'm all for human rights but actually if legislation is brought in to protect drinkers in a pub from second hand smoke then the least we can do is protect our children who cannot in effect protect themselves.

 

The thin end of the wedge? we are talking about a place where children play and yes it is outdoors but it isn't pleasant. Its also extremely unpleasant to have to prise cigarette butts out of a toddlers mouth/hands because they are just stubbed out on the ground!

 

Motorbikes and cars generally do not rev up and spew out fumes directly next to kids in a park so can't see the true relevance of that argument in this context.

 

Back to my first point, if all smokers were able to use some sense then NONE of the anti smoking legislation would ever have been drafted. Unfortunately, like most things in life it is the minority that spoil it for the rest.

 

That said, in the Ramsey parks I can honestly say I have only ever witnessed one or two smokers in the playground areas. It is like an unwritten rule not to. It is a rare sight. Also, all dept of education sites are non-smoking. You cannot even light up in the car park so we already have the precedent set for areas designated for kids on the island.

[hboy]

From MR: Complaints lead to review of smoking policy

 

Oddly I think this is one of the few sensible things the Corpy has proposed. Who wants to smoke around kids even if it is outdoors? I can only imagine the sort of illiterate orange faced tracksuit wearing knobbers who think that its ok to run through a packet of tabs in a childrens play park. Why not let them swig cider too, and maybe exercise their pitbulls as their kiddies play nearby on the swings.

[Joe Public]

I agree with the proposal.

 

I smoke, have a couple of sprogs, but they've never seen me smoke.

 

Out in the garage when I'm home. If we're ever in the park, I'll leave them in the care of Mrs Public and take a walk up the road.

 

I've never understood the thinking of people who light up in front of their kids and so a rule like this will probably inconvenience few people.

 

I'm a little concerned that the anti smoke brigade, having won their battle, now want smoking banned outside pubs, in the street, in people's cars etc. Don't you understand? You won. Let's leave it at that or ban cigarettes altogether.

[gazza]

I think Douglas Corporation should introduce this no smoking policy to the whole of the Douglas Borough!

 

We went down to the bottom of Bray Hill last night to watch the practices and a group of selfish twats all decided to hitch up (bearing in mind we are all squashed in the crowd like sardines to see some action)well that was it for us and others we had to move because of their selfish filthy dirty stinking habit

 

Rant over

 

LT

 

bet the ones that were smoking got that bit extra room as well after u left, so win win for them

[Declan]

Motorbikes and cars generally do not rev up and spew out fumes directly next to kids in a park so can't see the true relevance of that argument in this context.

 

They spew their fumes next to playgrounds, schools etc. Which is just the same as having a cigarette in a park, only the scale's bigger with road fumes. Unless you're suggesting smokers run up to kids a blow smoke in their faces or perhaps are smoking whilst pushing a child on a swing with the wind in an unfavourable direction. People wouldn't just stand in the centre of a playpark puffing away.

[Stu Peters]

Ridiculous. Non-smokers playing sanctimoniously with something they don't like.

 

If the Government wants to ban the sale of all tobacco products, so be it, I'll give up. But don't take all that tax from smokers (maybe a tenth of it is used in treating smoking-related diseases) and try to turn us into outcasts.

 

Smoking outdoors isn't harming anyone, and if you don't like it, move away.

[loaf]

If the Government wants to ban the sale of all tobacco products, so be it, I'll give up.

This is a bit of a tangent but cor!! That's a bluff. That's a massive bluff. It's a very 'smoker' thing to say that actually, Stu It's the smoker making a little pact with himself that he knows wont be fulfilled by the other party.

 

Why? You know perfectly well that governments just don't do things like that anymore - banning particular drugs that have been in use for generations. 1920s US alcohol prohibition is a case study on how not to do it and no western government is foolhardy enough to do anything like that. Better to gently turn the screws, apply the pressure - the thin end of the wedge as our OP puts it - and allow generations to be slowly turned off it, allow cartels and business models to adapt, than ban it outright.

[Snaipyr]

Ridiculous. Non-smokers playing sanctimoniously with something they don't like.

 

If the Government wants to ban the sale of all tobacco products, so be it, I'll give up. But don't take all that tax from smokers (maybe a tenth of it is used in treating smoking-related diseases) and try to turn us into outcasts.

 

Smoking outdoors isn't harming anyone, and if you don't like it, move away.

 

Good on you Stu. But the next poster is right about gradual turning on of screws. I was quite shocked at the announcement on a boat trip to Belfast that there's no smoking even out on deck. It wasn't so much that I couldn't smoke (I can last 3 hours without, so long as I sleep for 2 of them!)but the insanity of being out on deck in a howling wind where any smoke wouldn't have bothered anyone - especially as I was the only one out there!

[Snaipyr]

I think we should put up UV, cosmic-ray and meteorite shelters in every playground too. Plus we should encase playgrounds in plastic bubbles to filter out car fumes.

 

It's outside. It'll be parks, beaches and any other 'public' property soon. And then the 'publically owned' and managed streets/roads next.

 

Thin end of the wedge. FO.

 

Small minds focus on small things - there's far greater environmental threats to their precious sprogs than the odd whiff of ciggie smoke.

[Pierrot Lunaire]

One has to pity the poor old smokers, the constant chipping away at their freedoms to indulge in their habit, and the subsequent subtle panic they suffer as they realise it isn't getting any easier to smoke. But many of them are lost causes and official policy should be formulated for the benefit of future generations. Regardless of the direct health implications for non smokers being in the vicinity of smoking there is also the issue of normalisation of the unsavoury and unhealthy use of tobacco products, the acceptability, that is, in the eyes of children, that smoking is fine to do, as long as you are an adult. With that in mind, this specific proposal, and any others which further increase the invisibility of tobacco use have my full support. That smokers will moan about it is inevitable. But it's not their fault.

[thebees]

Smoking is really quite rubbish. Nicotine is a sneaky little addiction, people need to wake up to it and get over themselves. /smug exsmoker lol

[Theodolite]

Wasn't there once a certain Douglas Corporation Councillor decided to more-or-less accuse another Douglas Corporation Councillor of smoking hashish or something, when all they were doing was smoking home rolies.

 

It turned into a bit of a Legal Case did that one.

 

Personally, I would prefer Douglas Corporation Councillors concentrated their time and effort on things such as locating missing mayoral chains and stuff.

[triskelion]

But don't take all that tax from smokers (maybe a tenth of it is used in treating smoking-related diseases) and try to turn us into outcasts.

Tobacco duty is estimated to provide revenue of £22.6 million per year. I personally think it is very dubious that "smoking-related diseases" only cost the taxpayers £2.26 million a year, let alone all the other illnesses that can be part-attributed to smoking, such as damage to the eyes, teeth and throat.

 

I personally find the gradual erosion of smoking through legislation a little distasteful, and would probably favour an outright ban on their sale, and a limit on their importation. I don't believe banning smoking all together would be particularly useful.

 

Comparisons with Alcohol Prohibition in the US are fantasy, and its a shame it is always trotted out - its become what Nazis are to political debates. Smoking very obviously plays a very different social role to alcohol.

[spangle]

One has to pity the poor old smokers, the constant chipping away at their freedoms to indulge in their habit, and the subsequent subtle panic they suffer as they realise it isn't getting any easier to smoke. But many of them are lost causes and official policy should be formulated for the benefit of future generations. Regardless of the direct health implications for non smokers being in the vicinity of smoking there is also the issue of normalisation of the unsavoury and unhealthy use of tobacco products, the acceptability, that is, in the eyes of children, that smoking is fine to do, as long as you are an adult. With that in mind, this specific proposal, and any others which further increase the invisibility of tobacco use have my full support. That smokers will moan about it is inevitable. But it's not their fault.

 

I absolutely agree with you.

 

And in response to another poster's suggestion that no smoker would blow smoke directly into a kids face on the swings/slides etc - you would be very surprised. Its the same mentality that sees said parents sparking up with a carful of kids but that ones been done to death on another thread.