Wednesday
Jul222009
Sark: no need for smoking ban
Wednesday, July 22, 2009 The island of Sark has demonstrated how these things should be done. I am informed that Medical Committee chairman Diane Baker persuaded Chief Pleas members to approve a ban in a list of publicly-owned buildings. They include all committee rooms and offices, Sark School and the nearby play school.
However, conseillers (correct spelling!) decided against introducing legislation or further restrictions for the time being. Conseiller Baker explained that many island businesses had already introduced a voluntary ban and/or designated smoking areas and asked whether Sark really wanted legislation for something that could be dealt with on a voluntary basis.
Give that woman a medal!
Reader Comments (4)
She'll be barred from the UK as an 'undesirable' with common sense like that.
Never been to Sark. For a while there I thought I never would, but it is now firmly back on the shrinking list of (nearby) places to go and visit and be able to act normally.
I'll do a piece for our front page and see if we can get the tourist numbers up.
That'll teach their fascist neighbours a lesson.....
What is really interesting about Simon's post is that Diane Baker and the Sark Gov have somehow managed to UNDERSTAND that the reponsibility of the Gov extends only to properties owned (in a general sense) by the Gov. and not to privately owned places.
Good for them!
But one wonders whether or not pressure will be brought to bear eventually (I mean within, say, six months). Such as, "Do you realise that if a person sues the Sark Gov for compensation for injuries sustained through passive smoking resulting from the failure of the Sark Gov to ban smoking in all public places, a class action could totally bankrupt the island?" And then there is the insurance issue - things that we know nothing about, and nobody is talking about. And so, in a few months time, Sark will quietly acquiesce. The Class Action that I am talking about is the one that occurred in the USA, which succeeded (Phillip Morris paid millions of dollars into a 'compensation fund' in order to settle the action).
These are things that we can do nothing about. The best that we can expect is that, sooner or later, our Government will recognise what other Continental governments have realised - that is, that the USA decision is not relevant. That Europeans will NOT be dictated to by the USA and that our judges will NOT be allowed to quote the USA judgement as in any way a precendent. That is what we, in this country, can hope for.
Coming back to earth, it seems to me that our best hope for an amendment to the ban is to remind Labour MPs, again and again, about THE BROKEN MANIFESTO PLEDGE. That is their weak point. As we near the General Election, more and more Labour MPs will worry about their own, individual seats. The more that their broken manifesto pledge is brought to their attention together with the subsequent loss of votes, the better.
Precisely how this can be done, I do not know.
There is a poll
Should Sark ban smoking in public areas including pubs and clubs
http://www.simplysark.info/forum/general-discussions/5175-smoking-all-sark-enclosed-public-places.html
Vote NO