With Friends like these, who needs enemies?
Sunday, December 2, 2007 
"Smoking ban poses new climate threat" screams a headline in today's Sunday Telegraph. Hardly a news story, it's been doing the rounds for months. Pubs, we are told, are likely to pump hundreds of thousands of tons of additional carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as a result of the smoking ban.
The solution, one would think, is obvious. Amend the legislation to allow pubs to have well-ventilated, designated smoking rooms indoors. But no, in today's prohibition culture, that's too easy, or sensible. According to the Telegraph, "Environmentalists say the heaters must now be banned if Britain is to meet carbon dioxide emission targets."
According to those lovely people at Friends of the Earth: "The impacts of the smoking ban are positive, but this should not cause more problems for the environment. Either smokers will have to give up smoking or simply put on a jumper."
Charming.
Reader Comments (15)
There is another option of course, and that would be to build huge bonfires, made up from all the rubbish these people, like "fiends" of the earth, keep dishing out to us.
Well at least we know now that Friends of the Earth are not friends of smokers; no doubt in line with their "leave your car at home and walk attitude". God forbid if these hypocrites ever got their way, we would be reduced to a caveman existance.
I cannot think of anything more wasteful than energy being pushed out into the open air to heat people. However, do not put the blame on smokers or their non-smoking friends, these patio burners are a direct consequence of this ill-thought-out smoking ban.
I repeat again that smokers should not be treated as second class citizens, but provision must be made to accommodate them. Designated, indoor areas in hospitality venues with air cleaners/ ventilation, under a regulated air standard (if necessary), is the obvious way forward.
Bill.
A caveman exitence indeed! EnvironMENTALism is fast becoming a real danger to ANY concept of liberty that exists.When Friends of the Earth began by fighting pollution etc.it was a worthy cause,now it is political. Many supporters cannot see the wood for the trees.The very people who they fought against have highjacked these issues politically, and are profitting from them in massive ways.
There is no doubt in my nind that the Green Party,would become a horrendous dictatorship in power, being the only way it could achieve its aims.Many seem to believe that the planet would be better off without Man,For what purpose? Surely existance can only be, when someone recognises it.
Is there really supposed to be a 'normal' temerature of this world? Of course not , How can there be. With any change in climate, there will be winners and losers, as there are now, and maybe many who are struggling now will find a change of climate better for them.What has this phrase 'save the planet' got to do with any climate change? The answer is nothing at all. It's a phase like 'passiove smoking', designed to scare and make people feel guilty.
The fanatical nuts of Environmentalism and the anti-smoking crusade, certainly have a huge hold on political power,and this must be broken, somehow, before we are all living in an open prison.
THey may be friends of the Earth but they're no friends to people. But everything environmentalists say should be instantly tossed, they have proven themselves to be nuts time and time again.
They want a reduction of CO2 - so build nuclear reactors? No, they don't like that.
Build wind turbines? No, they moan about those too.
Hydroelectric? They REALLY don't like that.
I;ve long been convinced that there's really no pleasing them.
Tyranny can slip in on the back of good causes, whether, for example, these be in health,the environment, religion or politics: because they provide a route for the exertion of power, the enjoyment of prestige and, perhaps for some, the sweetest fix of all, the opportunity to look down on others. It is vital that our traditional constitutional checks and balances remain vigorous, so as to keep these temptations in check. Anyone who has served on any committee, however parochial, may have noted how easy it is to give in to them.
Couldn't make it up, could you ?
In the meantime, I am just putting the finishing touches to my New Religious Cult:
The high point of the year will be the ceremonial recycling-by-fire of a hundred-foot-high mountain of discarded car tyres (you'll be able to see the smoke for miles) on some convenient piece of moorland. I propose to call the event 'The Festival Of Saint Pikey', and all will be welcome - especially members of Friends Of The Earth, Pixies, and Woolly-Hatted Folk.
I look forward to receiving a substantial government grant (from the Cultural Minorities section of HM Treasury).
Anyone interested in joining...............?
The only answer to anything these days seems to be 'Ban It'. We are living in a 'Ban everything' culture and it has to stop before we all die from lack of anything to eat or drink or derive pleasure from because it has all been Banned!
Friends of the Earth and their ilk may have started as a worthy cause but in their desire not to be seen as part of the establishment they seem to go from extreme to extreme. The fact is that many of their original messages have long been accepted by the establishment, so now this group of middle class pinkos are running out of truly significant things to protest about - hence, hardly surprising they should be searching for a new crusade. However, given many of their extreme ideas they are also loosing credibility and have rightly been named by some as "The Bronze Age Appreciation Society." What a pity they are able to influence policy in 3rd world countries in Africa which means that whilst we in the 1st world may enjoy the benefits of nuclear power, many people in Africa still remain without the electric light!
Norman -
You (rightly) suggest that "It is vital that our traditional constitutional checks and balances remain vigorous............"
Unfortunately, one of the first things the Blair Junta did when assuming power was to destroy the independence of the House of Lords.
Yes, of course it was 'undemocratic' - but at least it offered the chance of genuinely free debate, untramelled by considerations of Party or the need to suck up to a dim-witted Plebs.
When Margaret Thatcher was PM, she had hundreds of proposals blocked or overturned by their Lordships - but I don't recall a batsqueak of protest from the Left then ('the democratic will of The People' etc etc etc). Funny that..............
I can see why Coriolanus got fed up............
If these people are so friendly with the earth why dont they bury themselves under it. They wouldn't have to put up with what goes on above ground and we wouldn't be able to hear the drivel they talk while below ground.
In reply to Martin V I agree. I have tried in this correspondence not to get involved in political partisanship but I believe that the hereditary peers, with their varied experience and interests and above all, independence from contemporary political patronage, were able to be a powerful brake on any overweening Executive. I have never been a politician but I have registered strongly that over the years, one of the few weapons backbenchers in the Commons had was the use of delaying tactics - keeping people up all night for example. I gather these rights have been heavily trimmed in recent years, along with the reduction of Prime Minister's exposure to Questions being reduced to one appearance a week instead of two. Given that the political classes seem to be breeding mavericks and independent thinkers out of the system, I really do think the country's checks and balances preventing abuses of power are in danger.
With regards to Friends of the Earth and all the other hype about CO2 emissions,why is it that nobody picks up one obvious point about the whole thing. When I went to school I was taught that as human beings we breathe in oxygen/nitrogen but breathe out carbon dioxide! Even if you live in a jungle you still do it! So do we all now stop breathing and die anyway! Surely this should put things into perspective for the likes of Friends of the Earth!
Norman -
Right again !
But, go into almost any university lecture-hall
(never mind classroom) in the country today, and ask the 'students' to name a few 'checks and balances', and what sort of response do you imagine you'd get ?
Ask them to name three of the five Spice Girls (Modern History), however, and they would probably provide you with a potted bio of each.............
But in a land where Princess ("An angel fell from Heaven") Diana was nominated as the Third Greatest Briton (ahead of Nelson, Darwin, and Shakespeare), what ARE we to expect ?
Martin V: I fear what we have to expect is a very long haul. Historians say that tyrannies eventually wither and fade away. The Green/Health one is in its infancy. Barring sturdy, party political resistance soon, the older ones among us won't live to see its decline. However, unless human nature has changed by that time I suppose all that will happen is that bullies and power freaks will find some new, good cause to annexe to their enthusiasms. I would not despair though, for, if I may make an oblique seasonal reference, the light of freedom cannot be permanently put out.
Well I am a smoker and supporter of Friends of the Earth. FOE is like any other organisation, it will almost certainly have members who are against smoking but to put it in perspective I am not aware of any organisational policy in this regard. FOE campaigns on the more serious matters, Genetically Modified Food and Commercial Incinerators just to give two examples. Smokers pose no threat to the planet Earth. Before the smoking ban the market place was resolving any issues regarding the rights of none smokers simply by creating separate smoking areas or in some cases non smoking pubs. Most people seemed happy with that. The ban of course has resulted in thousands of patio heaters being used. The paradoxes of nanny state are numerous, whilst justified so they believe in legislating a smoking ban they are happy to support incinerators which require hundreds of thousands of tons of rubbish to operate resulting in some 200 plus lethal dioxins being emitted in to the air for both smokers and none smokers to breath without any freedom of choice in the matter. Similarly, genetically engineered food is about as dangerous a science as it gets but governments are actively supporting the biotech industry to achieve global control of the worlds food supply chain with potentially dangerous consequences. I could say much more but I am sure the readers will get my drift.