Welcome to Taking Liberties
Monday, March 26, 2007 
Welcome to Taking Liberties, an oasis for those who believe in less not more government intrusion into our daily lives. Taking Liberties is sub-titled 'The Free Society blog'. For those who missed our launch party last year, The Free Society is an offshoot of Forest, the smokers' lobby group. Founded in 1979 by a former Battle of Britain fighter pilot, Forest defends those who choose to smoke tobacco and don't expect to be vilified for consuming a legal product that generates billions of pounds for the Treasury.
The Free Society will take that campaign one stage further. We will demonstrate that attempts to ostracise smokers are part of a much bigger picture in which politicians, campaigners and public officials are slowly eroding our civil liberties with laws and regulations that are out of all proportion to the problems they seek to tackle. Today tobacco, tomorrow food and drink. And motoring. Free speech, too, is under threat, with politicians and scientists telling us there is "no debate" about passive smoking or global warming when, clearly, there is.
There are two reasons for naming the blog Taking Liberties. First, I am genuinely concerned that freedoms we have taken for granted are slowly being taken from us without proper debate. Second, I want to make this blog as entertaining as possible and if that means taking liberties in a more colloquial sense, so be it. Feedback is positively encouraged so feel free to comment on anything that appears here. It's going to be an interesting journey so welcome aboard and enjoy the ride.
Reader Comments (23)
Best wishes for the new blog, Simon.
I hope that many people, concerned for the loss of liberty, arrive here and speak their minds.
I am single issue at the moment, (the smoker ban) but I am just getting warmed up....
Well done, Simon and keep up the good work
As a life long smoker I am appalled at the hysterical nature of the anti smoking lobby and at the infringement of my own liberties
As you say where will this end up?
Carol Boucher
At las Simon, someone is speaking up. This once great nation of ours is slowly being erroded away by those in power. I am now beginning to be frightened of where it all might end.
Well done and a good start. I'll be back often. Mind you I am having no problems with smoking working here in Kuwait.....yet.
I wish you better support for your fight against Social Engineering than I was ever able to inspire.
I used to 'own' smokers.com, and the associated smokersdotcomclub forum I founded, from January 1999 to 2003, I think.
Smokers.Com back in my days used to get about 50,000 Visitors, about 1/2 Million Page Hits, per month.
At it's peak, a lot of people expressed guaranteed interest in being able to do business together. So, I tried to setup a global Smokers' Business Network for the 1 Billion smokers' market, similar to plans today by Alexander Schoppmann and his Smintair - Smoker's International Airways
The SBN members would buy and sell with each other, including cars, homes, condos, insurance, vitamins, vacation packages to smokers' resorts, bars and restaurants, movie theatres, and all manner of needs, you name it.
So, I setup the pilot project to begin registering members for it.
Not even the strongest supporters signed up.
They didn't want to lose their anti-smoking customers to get way more customers than they would lose.
Well, it was a great idea back then, and it is Still a great idea. Imagine 1 Billion Smokers united and fighting back against Social Engineers.
And, with recent developments of Reduced Risk Tobacco Products, I believe it's a very winning idea that would work today.
Best Wishes,
Steve Hartwell
www.ventilatedsmokingrooms.ca
Congratulations Simon on taking this initiative - I'm sure it will be popular and provocative. Our liberties are most certainly being eroded, slowly, one freedom at a time – with each ban being justified to make the next. The smoking ban is typical of this and the same faces and same voices have, in Scotland, already moved on to alcohol and fatty foods. By the time these patronising behavioural fascists are finished Cromwell's rule will look decidely hedonistic. There's no need to emigrate to New Zealand or some other far flung place where we think it's better (but invariably it's not). This blog can be part of the fightback and you have been a Trojan in raising the issues beyond smoking. Just dont fall under a bus!
Great idea Simon. I've bookmarked the site.
Thankyou Simon; much needed. Please keep us
informed and updated on all the things we might do to bring some sanity back to this beloved country of ours. Maybe we could have a rally or at least a promotional evening - before 1 July
that is?
We also have to keep a very careful eye on local councils - who seem to have the "right" to ban smoking outside public buildings. This is apparently taking place, or will do so, in the Covent Garden area and I think Soho too.
That means that, in principle, local councils may grab the right to override the law whereby smoking in enclosed public places is banned - and extend it to outside spaces as well (without a democratic vote?)
Bearing in mind that there are elections in May, we could all be writing to our local councillors, MPs and MEPs to say we will spoil our ballot papers unless a pledge is given publicly to protect outside spaces for those of us who choose a little tobacco in our leisure time. That includes outside space for pubs, clubs, cafes, restaurants, beaches, parks and streets.
Never forget that, in this impoverished climate, Hitler would have been welcomed as a non-smoking, non-drinking vegetarian (who loved his dog), while Churchill would not. Interestingly, of course, Churchill outlived Hitler. What an odd world we live in.
We need to use all the strength we have to challenge this draconian (and pitifully correct)
legislation. All my heroes and heroines smoked and what a legacy they left us. We have not even begun to fulfil it.
This needs concerted action towards ALL our local councillors and MPs - see the freedom2choose site to write one email to all your named representatives. It can focus the political mind wonderfully with May in view.
I have threatened to spoil my ballot paper in these emails, and have received (oh surprise) four pledges to support at least outside space for smokers.
What a game. Please - be active, and now.
SMOKING BANS ARE THE REAL THREAT!!!
The bandwagon of local smoking bans now steamrolling across the nation from
sea to sea has nothing to do with protecting people from the supposed threat
of second-hand smoke.
The bans are symptoms of a far more grievous threat; a cancer that has been
spreading for decades. This cancer is the only real hazard involved -- the
cancer of unlimited government power.
The issue is not whether second-hand smoke is a real danger or a phantom
menace. The issue is: if it were harmful, what would be the proper reaction?
Should anti-tobacco activists satisfy themselves with educating people about
the potential danger and allowing them to make their own decisions, or
should they seize the power of government and force people to make the
"right" decision?
Supporters of local tobacco bans have made their choice. Rather than
attempting to protect people from an unwanted intrusion on their health, the
tobacco bans are the unwanted intrusion.
Loudly billed as measures that only affect "public places," they have
actually targeted private places: restaurants, bars, nightclubs, shops, and
offices -- places whose owners are free to set anti-smoking rules or whose
customers are free to go elsewhere if they don't like the smoke. Some local
bans even harass smokers in places where their effect on others is obviously
negligible, such as outdoor public parks.
The decision to smoke, or to avoid second-hand smoke, is a question to be
answered by each individual based on his own values and his own assessment
of the risks. This is the same kind of decision free people make regarding
every aspect of their lives: how much to spend or invest, whom to befriend
or sleep with, whether to go to college or get a job, whether to get married
or divorced, and so on.
All of these decisions involve risks; some have demonstrably harmful
consequences; most are controversial and invite disapproval from the
neighbours. But the individual must be free to make these decisions. He must
be free, because his life belongs to him, not to his neighbours, and only
his own judgment can guide him through it.
Yet when it comes to smoking, this freedom is under attack. Cigarette
smokers are a numerical minority, practising a habit considered annoying and
unpleasant to the majority. So the majority has simply commandeered the
power of government and used it to dictate their behaviour.
That is why these bans are far more threatening than the prospect of
inhaling a few stray whiffs of tobacco while waiting for a table at your
favourite restaurant. The anti-tobacco crusaders point in exaggerated alarm
at those wisps of smoke while they unleash the systematic and unlimited
intrusion of government into our lives.
Thomas Laprade
Thunder Bay, Ont.
Dear Steve Hartwell
Why not try it again? The economic facts are probably going to bite very hard indeed. The
Brits have a habit of sleep-walking towards a nasty surprise - and I suspect this is going to be one of them. I am outraged by what is happening and the simple minds of the fascist
agenda with which we are faced. This is not about "health", or "tobacco", but it probably is about control, and the power of the pharmaceutical industry. We, sadly, badly, are pawns in the game. What support could we give?
I for one small voter will back you. Please let us know. We need action - get off our bloody backsides and do something. My modest campaign in Kent and areas of London that I can get to, by leaflet information, is for people to write to their district and local councillors and MP, MEPs via freedom2choose.
I am leafleting actively over Easter. One email sends a message to all of them by name.
If everyone who is concerned about this did only that, there might be a tremor of fear with the forthcoming elections in May. I have received four pledges to protect outside spaces for smokers at the very least. Sadly, one labour councillor in Kent hoped I would die - but that is his problem and not mine. The others sent messages of support - that's what we need. I threatened them - that's what it comes down to. Good job too.
Very best wishes
Beverly
SMOKERS HAVE CIVIL RIGHTS TOO!
I urge each person reading this site to go to:
www.freedom2choose.org.uk
Click on the facility: FAX YOUR MP.
Tap in your postcode and your one email will be sent automatically to your local representatives by name. Express your concerns and ask that they give you their personal pledge to protect all local outside spaces at the very least. Remember, there are elections due in May and 14m smokers who have a vote. You are one of them. Smokers have civil rights too.
Good luck with it.
Great to see the new blog Simon. I have actually given up smoking in the last week, however, I look forward to supporting and reading this blog and learning more about the wider issues. Also need to watch that I don't turn into one of those horrible whining ex-smokers, just cos I don't smoke anymore doesn't mean trying to force anyone else to stop!
Best wishes for the new blog, Simon.
I hope to see more debate around this topic very soon.
Let hope that the new site will allow people to add video. Sites like www.public.tv and frictiontv.com are great.
Great idea Simon its good to see someone still waving the freedom and democracy flag.
Hello Simon,
You have so much patience, whenever I have heard you in a debate over the smoking issue. You stay calm cool and collected, even if it is 3-1 against you in the panel.
I do find Forest a great site,but the same question is asked everytime I have watched on the TV or heard on the radio, is who funds Forest.They have done a lot of great work I know. Why do they never ask Ash and the like who fund them. Big Pharma seem to be bigger than Big T now.
I have joined freedom2choose.co.uk and they are fighting for ventilation too, in the hospitality trade. They cannot be accused of Big T influence because there is none. Many tolerant non-smokers are fighting for an amendment of this ban.
What this government and governments around the world,are creating is intolerance. The way they have treated the elderly is unspeakable. How do people become this inhumane. We are going backwards not forward.
Thank you
Mandy from Cambs
At last, a breath of fresh air, mingled with tobacco smoke! How the Public Health Lobby will fume!
FCUK THE SMOKE BAN
For all the little plump children; for smokers, drinkers and motorists; for the elderly who do not want to join compulsory community exercise classes to retain the right to healthcare; for anyone who would defend civil liberties . . . we must stand up and be counted in our millions!
Best wishes to you Simon and to this new project. I welcome your personal input as I believe your common sense and calm voice is one we should all hear more often. It would be an excellent result if this blog and new "Free Society" organisation acted as a cohesive force in our battle for the right to live our lives the way we choose. Would it not be a grand event that saw representatives from FOREST, FREE SOCIETY, FREEDOM2CHOOSE, THEBIGDEBATE, FORCES, SMOKERSRIGHTSCLUB/INC joined in defence of smokers against the impudent voices of ASH and their cohorts of zombie followers.
SMOKING gets my vote -
Who wants it?
Oh dear - The No Smoking Ban - When will people realise that the Government and especially this Government has not brought this ban in for the good of the general public's health. There is not a single person in Westminster that could care less about the health of the general public. All they care about is themselves, keeping their cushy jobs and the money they can make. So on to the smoking ban, its like every other thing this government has done it has been imposed to get even more money out of the general public, just like the speeding, the littering, the free talk, and every other stupid thing they have taxed and fined us on in the past 10 yrs. The ridiculous fines they are threatening to impose ion us, £50 on the spot, if not paid £200, and any pub, restaurant and enclosed area £2000 for the owners. This is sheer lunacy, if anybody had told you 20 years ago this would happen we would not have believed it. Its like the new Global Tax Mr Brown has forced on us, just what is he going to do with all the extra £1's he gets in now from people travelling, gather all the Pound Notes up and stick them in the Ozone layer to bung up the hole - I think not - so what is the reason he wants to fine us on every aspect of our lives and get the money in the government coffers, and its an awful lot of mney he is collecting in on these unneccersary fines. I would hate to find out when he does eventually lose power that his so called strong economy has been achieved on borrowed money. On the plus side if they do managed to stop everyone smoking - just where are they going to get the tax from that smokers bring in. it will have to be from somewhere, wherever it is how I will laugh when it eventually dawns on the members of ASH that they are now paying in there taxes what us smokers would have paid to the Government
Good. Another smoker's blog. I was a Lib-Dem voter until this ban. Not a peep out of them about it. So much for 'liberals'. What party do I vote for now?