Nick Clegg's denial of our freedom
Thursday, July 15, 2010 Peter Thurgood, who regularly comments here, has provoked a further storm of protest about the smoking ban over on ConservativeHome.
Earlier this week Peter wrote to Jonathan Isaby, co-editor of ConservativeHome, with some observations about the Nick Clegg video (above) which I wrote about HERE, following a tip-off from Peter, on Monday.
Jonathan agreed to write about it, incorporating some of Peter's comments, and you can see the result (and all the comments) HERE.
Here is the full text of what Peter sent ConservativeHome:
Nick Clegg’s denial of our freedom
On the Your Freedom website, where the public have been invited to add their views to exactly which laws, rules, regulations, they think need amending or overturning, Nick Clegg has suddenly decided to add a new video of himself, telling the public how well the site is doing and how the Government are looking at “all” the ideas and views that are being put forward.
Mr Clegg then adds that there are exceptions however, such as repealing the death penalty, and looking at the smoking ban.
What sort of hypocritical double-talk is this? The amendment of the smoking ban has been one of the most popular ideas to have been put forward on the Your Freedom website. The general consensus has been not to overturn the ban completely, but to amend it, allowing separate venues for smoking as well as non-smoking.
A significant 25% of the population smoke, and feel quite rightly that their rights have been taken away from them by this very unpopular law. They have the backing of many MPs and with the Your Freedom website promising to look at their views, thought that here they had the voice of fairness at least willing to look at what they were asking for. But now Nick Clegg has taken away, in one minute sentence, and hope they had of fairness.
The Your Freedom website is therefore nothing more than a complete falsehood. It allows people to believe that their views on the smoking ban were to be read and possibly looked into. The website even has a section clearly marked “Smoking”. Why is this section there if Mr Clegg has no intentions of even looking at it?
In making such a statement, Mr Clegg has now clearly misled the public on this issue.
The deputy prime minister may like to think this issue is dead and buried but the strength of feeling and the number of comments it has generated on ConservativeHome alone in the past week suggests that it is far from that.
Keep those comments coming. I suggest that you also send a letter (not an email) to Nick Clegg at the House of Commons.
Reader Comments (9)
hi
I'm 35 yo polish guy, now living i Cambridge. I gave up smoking 3 years ago and should rather be happy about the ban. But I'm not. Don't want to discuss impact of tobacco on one's health-adult people make they choices. I don't understand how the goverment dare to stop my customers smoking i MY OWN pub!!!!!!!!! Sometimes I think that real purpose of the ban is to keep people separate and stop them meeting and exchanging they opinions on politics and other things. They want us to be a herd of thoughtless sheeps easy to manipulate
Michal
Cambridge
ConservativeHome is obviously a Tory site, but I am afraid to say that there are one hell of a lot of very ill-informed people on there.
We need as many posters as possible to keep the ball rolling and hopefully put the presure on Nick Clegg, and David Cameron for allowing his deputy to cheat the public like this.
We also need Dave Athrton to hit them and hit them again with genuine facts and figures.
Taken from my blog re D-Day Veterans visit to Normandy last week.
"Later on when l'd taken them to bar and we were sat out in the sun having a beer ... and a smoke, one of the vets said " Y'know, l used to enjoy a pint and a smoke at the pub but it's not worth going anymore. Hardly anyone goes. When l have been and l want a smoke l've got to shuffle out on these f###ing sticks. Doesn't matter if it's pouring with rain, blowing a gale, f###ing snowing ... out l f###ing go"
He went on "What really pi##es me off is all them f###ing anti-smoking c##ts. They say it's better for me, it's healthier, it's for my own good ... l'm 85 for f###s sake!"
His mate replied " Makes you wonder why we bothered, f###ing fascists won in the end"
..................................
l agree entirely with them. These veterans fought for your freedoms and this is how they are treat. The country should hang it's head in shame.
I totally agree, Smoking Hot.
It makes you wonder if this is the thanks these guys and their fallen comrades get for putting their necks on the line for freedom and democracy, to be spat on now by politicians who, I am sure, can't even spell Democracy, why are so many signing up to the forces today to go and fight what is probably a losing battle in Afghanistan?
Do they expect to be remembered and respected in years to come? Surely that lesson should have been learned!
Smoking Hot -
It's especially the impact of this SPITEFUL ban on the lives of those who gave so much that makes me so bloody angry
And so bloody sad.
Yet some poncey little toff in a white shirt can dismiss their concerns with such brainless, heartless insouciance.
What a nation we have become !
Lions led by bleating lambs.......................................................
Peter T -
Bloody well done, by the way !
And would the Naughty Person who stole Nick's Testosterone kindly let him have it back, please ?
There's a desperate shortage of the stuff among the Coalition Males, and they're starting to go a bit girly.
This is Britain - not Brazil .......................................
A lot of people lately have been saying that they just do not understand what the smoking-ban is all about. Why has this ban been foisted on us? After all, if we all suddenly stopped smoking, as we are led to believe that we should do, how on earth would the Government replace all the lost revenue from tobacco tax?
The NHS, which by all accounts is already in a terrible mess, would almost certainly collapse, income tax on everyone would need to rise sharply, and yes, wait for it, VAT would have to be raised yet again.
So what on earth can be the motivation behind the smoking-ban? The law was introduced on the false premise that it would help to safeguard the lives and health of bar and restaurant workers. From that weak excuse it has gone on to saving children's lives, not just when the toddler is enjoying a pint down the pub, but also when they are strapped into mummy or daddy's car. Plus of course, as we all know, there are those whose eyes weep, hair and clothes stink, and God help them, they have to actually wash more than their customary once a fortnight, if they have had the misfortune to come within 100 yards of a smoker.
This helps us to understand the kind of nuts we are up against, but it still doesn't explain why!
I have a new theory on "why". Not completely new, but it does help to explain a few things. For some years we have heard of the American theory, where "Big Pharma" was slowly but surely taking over the falling sales of the tobacco industry. I never quite bought into that one, as I thought what on earth can the so called Big Pharma have to sell, that the Americans would buy on such a constant basis as they did with cigarettes and cigars?
Last night however, I watched a tv documentary called "Zeitgeist". I only came in half way through it, and what I saw made me immediately sit up and take notice, as the comparisons in the way the American Government throughout the past 100 years or so, have sought to control their people, was on a direct par with the way our Government (especially the last Labour Government) has been controlling us.
The general idea behind this control, seems to be, get the public riled up enough and you can get them to agree with anything. Once the public are in agreement with any policy or conspiracy that particular government likes to put forward, then they are hooked, and you can tax them until they bleed, and the vast majority won't say a damn word.
A good example of this was during the first world war, when an English Ambassador asked his American counterpart, "What would America do if Germany sunk an ocean liner with American passengers on board?" To which the American replied "I believe that a flame of indignation would sweep through the United States and that by itself would be sufficient to carry us into the war"
A couple of weeks later the Lusitania was sunk and America entered the war.
Have a look at the film for yourself here
But be aware, the first half is mostly about religion, it warms up after that, and if you bear with it, I am sure you will be astounded by what you see and learn, as I was.
Peter T -
" I watched a tv documentary called "Zeitgeist". "
Good man !
Some errors, of course, but substantially sound, I feel. And I've read numerous well-referenced and well-documented books since I first saw it to make me feel that the World really IS quite a different place from what we've been led to believe.
Now, perhaps. you'll see where I've been coming from all this time.
The problem is this: like the European Union, the thing is SO huge, that people merely see (when they see) its constituent parts (suitably translated to aid their false perceptions), whilst failing utterly to comprehend its true purpose.
The fact is, Peter, that we've ALL been living in Plato's Cave for years - if not generations.
Time now to WAKE UP. And wake our friends up, too: but don't expect them to love you for it.
After all, we ALL adore the idea of Santa Claus as children.
But by the time you've reached 40.................................
If you haven't already done so, then I (respectfully) suggest you google 'Webster Griffin Tarpley' (aka 'Webster Tarpley') and continue your researches from there.
You won't regret it.
(My maternal grandfather - a White Star/Cunard man - was on the 'Lusitania' by the way)
Cleggy is a spineless joke of a career politician. Certainly not a "liberal" and his parties' over-representation in the coalition-agreement will continue to hold back progress towards repairing the damage from nulabor's scorched earth policies.
Still, his Illiberal Dumocrats are currently polling at 13%, so as soon as Cameron feels like calling another GE, we'll hopefully see the back of the present LD party elite and see the LDs restored as a truly liberal opposition party.