Thursday
Apr232009
Good morning Dublin
Thursday, April 23, 2009 If anyone is interested, I am being interviewed (with Valerie Coughlan of ASH Ireland) for Good Morning Dublin on Dublin City Radio at 10.15. No?
Thursday, April 23, 2009 
Thursday, April 23, 2009 If anyone is interested, I am being interviewed (with Valerie Coughlan of ASH Ireland) for Good Morning Dublin on Dublin City Radio at 10.15. No?
Reader Comments (20)
Please choose your words carefully, Simon. There is more involved here than just taking liberties.
Hope you asked her about their policy on tobacco taxation which has caused a surge in smuggling and is funding other forms of violent crime. In addition, many towns on the border with N Ireland are dying on their feet as shoppers cross over to buy their smokes. A packet of cigarettes now costs over £8 sterling in S Ireland against less than £6 in the North.
Also, I hope you questioned her about the ASH campaign which has lead to Tom & Jerry cartoons being taken off the screen due to there being scenes involving smoking[things like these make these cretins look stupid to the general public].
Finally, I hope you questioned her on ASH's latest campaign to not only ban cigarette smoking in cars where there are children, but to ban it completely from cars altogether. These people are nutters and need to be shown as zealots and liars. I trust you did not go lightly on her but unfortunately I did not hear the show.
I am wondering Michael, if the plans are not already in place for stopping smoking in vehicles altogether.
A friend bought a 6 month old large van, for personal use, and found there was no ashtray in it! It got me wondering, I must admit.
On the other hand, of course, it could just mean another government money making scheme, catching and fining all the drivers who drop ash and the ciggie butts out of the window!
I agree Lyn. Smokers and drivers are always easy targets for taxation and there is a way to hit both at the same time.
A bit off the subject but ASH UK has reproduced a telegraph article about the banning of a Coco Chanel poster in its Daily News. Usually these articles are reproduced verbetim by ASH, or they insert editor's comments. This article was reproduced almost word for word except that the following was removed:
"Chanel was 87 when she died in 1971, despite smoking several packets of cigarettes a day for most of her life. It is rare to find photos or her without a cigarette."
I only spotted it because I was curious as to how long Chanel lived.
I don't think that is off topic Jon, it just proves how underhanded and manipulative ASH are! This is itself should prove to people what shaky ground they are on, otherwise they would need to resort to the lies and manipulation of facts as they do.
Jon, I am not quite with you on this? Why was ASH reporting on Coco Chanel in the first place? Surely they must have known she was a heavy and well known smoker?
Sally, ASH was relaying a Telegraph article about the banning of a poster advertising a film about the life of Coco Chanel, because the actress is smoking. ASH reproduces such articles in an attempt to foster an atmosphere where banning references to smoking is seen as reasonable and not unusual. Usually these articles are reproduced unedited and so most people won't bother reading the original. Henry Samuel, the author of the article, probably wouldn't be too pleased if he knew.
They were reporting on the posters being banned (it's actually Audrey Tautou in the poster). They managed to include "the posters show Tautou as the chain-smoking French creator of the little black dress" but - oops! - conveniently forgot the bit about her being 87 and smoking "several" packets of fags a day.
Thank you Jon. Would it be possible to set the cat amongst the pigeons by letter Henry Samuel know what has happened?
Google Henry Samuel up and leave a comment, Sally G?
Why, don't you have Google Margot?
What are you doing in Ireland, Simon? Get thee to Scotland, sunshine.
;-)
Sorry to have missed the inverview Simon but I hope you put that Coughlan stupid 'stunt' in her box by educating her on civil liberties, something those Ash wankers dont understand or what it stands for.
And now the irish Ash nazis want to ban smoking in cars but if its enforced the way the banning of using mobile phones while driving is, we can all relax.
I bet the Coughlan wan kept her mouth shut about the article in yesterday's irish daily mail that said 'Scientists link nicotine gum to higher risk of cancer' and a doctor's quote 'This study cautions the potential co-carcinogenic effect of nicotine in tabacco replacement therapies.'
It amazes me that with the well known third world status and mismanagement of irish hospitals with 2 year waiting lists for cancer patients, not to mention the misdiagnosis of cancer patients that have lead to deaths and now the threat of thousands of redundancies of hospital staff that are working at the coal face, that you never hear of the ASH nazis or their partners in torture ever being made redundant or taking a pay cut or their dept being wiped out.
They just seem to get stronger and raspier and money for their sickening adverts seem to be no problem.
I wonder why that is.
It is not just ASH Ann. Those green prats spending a fortune on adverts about carbon footprints when people cannot afford to turn the heating on!
Millions of euro of taxpayers money wastes by these outfits while the country is turning into a basket case. I agree that these quangos should be abolished to save money rather than targetting working families to tax. The last budget has cost my wife and I thousands and would be more if I was employed in the South rather than the North. We have just had our first baby and will lose the under 5 allowance and also child benefit in December. Our fault I suppose because we both work and pay taxes.
I saw a survey for ASH and Cancer Ireland saying that a 2 euro increase in the price of cigarettes would yield the exchequer over 200 million euro. The same week it was shown that because of the increased levels of VAT in Southern Ireland that £700 million was spent in the North by Southern shoppers. I wonder what sort of a d***head reached the conclusions and more to the point who paid for the survey.
Yes indeed Michael you have hit the nail on the head when you question who pays for these so called independent surveys, that are invariably with a slant by whoever commissioned them and of course paid for by the taxpayer.
Unfortately these surveys now seem to have a direct influence on policymaking and with no consensus for these so called democatic and meddling laws.
Part of the reason that people are shopping up north in their droves is because our dickhead finance minister raised our vat to 23% in the Sept budget while England reduced theirs to 15%.
Its a disgrace that Irish families are loosing their child benefit while millions of euro are going out of the country every year to pay for eastern european children who have never put a foot in this country.
Our stupid, corrupt, riddled with cronyism and EU hugging govt have been in power for 12 years.
Maybe the downturn will have a positive effect in that we might end up with a proper govt, like Libertas for instance, or a govt who live in the real world but with their feet in Ireland and not pandering to EU initiatives and directives.
P.S. Dont get me going on the Greens, they're only interested in being in power and their pensions, if they had any courage they would have called for a general election long ago.
Something for the weekend, folks? See addition to "Health Bill: letters to the Times" thread below.
At least the USA is starting to see sense
http://www.kvbc.com/Global/story.asp?S=10212554&nav=menu107_2
Has anyone seen this http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Smoke-rooms/