Friday
Dec142007
Where there's hope
Friday, December 14, 2007 
A friend who went to London's O2 last night to watch the Verve was amazed to see loads of people smoking INSIDE the arena.
"The security guards," she reports, "weren't doing very much about it, so there's hope yet!"
Reader Comments (12)
Simon - The only way this intolerable Smoking Ban Experiment is going to be overturned or amended to allow CHOICE is by civil disobedience. Or putting it plainly, ignoring the smoking ban altogether. Power to the people concerned in smoking inside the O2 venue; I am sure more people will follow suit.
Yes, totally agree with Bill. Also, don't forget, it's National Smoking Day on December 31st - so people should light up everywhere!
As the weeks go by I am receiving more and more reports about people and pubs flouting the ban.
Seems civilization always goes 2 Steps Forward, 4 Steps back.
The smoking witch hunt is exactly like the Civil Rights fights in the 60's. Civil dis-obedience En-masse is what got things done.
Well done, all the fans !
Guys I have you at a disadvantage, I have done some indepth resarch. My daughter Emma is a Trolly Dolly at O2, while doing her A Levels, looking after the VIP suites. She was not at the Verve concert but has done most of the recent ones. Most people in the VIP section smoke in the toilets, or when she has gone to re-stock her trolly they are busy lighting up behind her back. At the Led Zepplin concert she felt quite nauseous fron the cannibis fumes. Another winner in the search for Nivrana.
Nirvana? I thought you said Led Zeppelin.
The smoking ban is on the same road as the cannabis ban. Prohibition for our own good. The "protecting the health of employees" is merely a ruse to make smoking as unpleasant as possible in the hopes of reducing smoking prevalence.
When it becomes obvious that it doesn't work (and it never does) lobby groups start pushing for the ban to be expanded.
Civil disobedience is the way to go. The more ASH and their ilk scream about it, the more unreasonable they sound and so hopefully the more people will simply ignore them as the nutty extremist group they are.
Nationalsmokingday is december 31 2007
Look at the website www.Nationalsmokingday.com
or Nationalsmokingday.co.uk.
It is time to stand up for your right>
I agree that civil disobedience is the only method that would force a change. But antagonising the ordinary non-smoker would be a mistake. Take a leaf out of the antismoking industry's book. They take care not bite off too much in one go. If you are going to smoke in a pub, which I don't recommend, then maybe hire a room or make sure it has separate rooms and is not full of children. If you are going to smoke on a station platform, then go right to the end. ASH needs a substantial minority of the public behind it in order to function. They will ultimately be defeated by widespread low-level flouting of the ban which does not annoy the ordinary non-smoker. After saying all that, I could be wrong. There is now effectively no hunting ban - people happily hunt and nobody talks about it. This resulted from an invasion of the House of Commons. I'm certainly not advocating this.
In agreement with previous comments. I respect Forest's position in being unwilling to advocate law-breaking, but I think it really is time for us humble citizen-subjects to assert our liberties against those who have stolen them.
Excellent points in Jon's post above. Baby steps. If with our small acts of defiance we are not seen to be doing harm to anyone else, then the deranged and extremist diktats will lose general respect.
Hopefully Basil- not that children are likely to be in a Led Zeppelin concert, a pub in the evening, a working men's club or indeed a nightclub! So in any of the above go ahead and light up!
Indeed, Carlo. But the cheek of these antis knows few bounds. I was in a marquee-type gig a coupla years back [pre-ban anyway]; a big marquee with a high canopy. At about midnight this twonk actually shoved his flippin' baby in my face whilst I was trying to enjoy my peaceable gasper.
A heated row ensued, naturally...
Anti-smokers seem to have the ability to wind me up like no-one else. I'm trying to manage the anger; not let it get too ragey. Controlling the speed the words come out, not delivering long lists; each point prefaced with a shouted FACT! and keeping a sense of proportion. The ban appeals to the prejudice of some non-smokers. N/S + prejudice = easily-swallowed propaganda = anti-smoker. I'm not perfect. I have prejudices. Different ones. Often, I'll lose them, come to see another perspective, but never via someone raging at me.
Am feeling a little more radical this evening tho'. ;-)
I say live and let live. This wretched country is becoming like Russia. And I think its worse. Drinking has got out of control. Us smokers are shivering outside in freezing tempatures. But the drinkers are allowed to throw up inside and out. What a pathetic Nanny state we live in.