Friday
Jul232010
More on smoking around children
Friday, July 23, 2010 I'm on Radio Scotland this morning discussing smoking around children with presenter Kaye Adams who has never hidden her dislike of people smoking around her.
In the wake of yesterday's Billie Piper story it was interesting to read some of the comments on the Guardian website. Click HERE.
Update on Friday, July 23, 2010 by
Simon Clark
Simon Clark
My comments have been posted on the MadeForMums forum - see:
Smoker mum Billie Piper denies bad parenting.
Reader Comments (14)
Amazing. Where were all these reasonable voices during the last few years? It's as though a lid has been lifted and they've all been released.
Where a lot of people were. Cowed into saying little. Heads down behind the parapet praying for the bastard Govt. to be struck by lightening!
A pleasant surprise and a delight to read.
More encouraging comments than from the loons in yesterday's Mail :)
"It's as though a lid has been lifted and they've all been released."
Either that, or they've just been let out on parole..................................
"presenter Kaye Adams ................."
Well, SHE looks and sounds like a whole bundle of fun !
Surely Jeremy Clarkson can't be the ONLY presenter who actually LIKES smoking ?
I think the reasonable responses on the Guardian article may have a lot to do with their wanting to behave in an equal and opposite manner to those who commented in the Mail, especially since the Mail article was mentioned in the Guardian story.
Didn't hear Simon this morning, unless he was on in the slot before 9 am?
I am pleased to see that the majority of people leaving comments on the Daily Mail site, and the Guardian site, seem to be saying "enough is enough", the poor woman (Ms Piper) has done nothing illegal.
But while the voice of reason seems to be increasingly making itself heard in these debates, the infantile anti-smoking stasi are still shouting and screaming their abuse everywhere. The problem is of course that their voice dominates, because their voice has the power of big business and money behind it.
This morning I read a review of a new TV programme which is starting shortly, I think its name is "Sherlock". It is about a modern day Sherlock Holmes, who goes around London in a mini-cab and solves crimes with the help of his computer.
Sounds great doesn't it? I have always been a big fan of Sherlock Holmes, and "was" eagerly looking forward to this, until that is, I read that instead of smoking his famous Meerschaum pipe, he now resorts to "nicotine patches".
No, I am not joking, this is what it has come to, Sherlock Holmes without his pipe, Churchill without his cigar. What will we have next, a programme about WC Fields, where all he drinks is bottled water?
How come we are letting these meddling, evil fools, mess with our lives and our culture like this? Why aren't we shouting and screaming like they do? Why haven't we got a propaganda machine in full swing like they have?
We do have a voice you know, and there are enough of us.
"Why aren't we shouting and screaming like they do?"
Because, Peter, WE are Grown-Ups !
And children - especially of the over-indulged, spoilt-brat variety - are not very strong on Reason.
We should threaten them with the loss of their pocket-money.
Or, at least, someone should on our behalf............................................
WHO is it going to be ?
(The return of SOME 'Victorian values' is long overdue IMHO)
Actually, don't be too disheartened by the Mail responses. Look at it again. The anti comments stand out a mile by being "disliked" hundreds, if not thousands of times, lost in a sea of red. Similarly, the tolerant comments are "liked" by hundreds - indeed the anti comments are easy to spot.... they are 100% red. amongst a sea of green, tolerant comments. This also enables you to see that there are very many tolerant comments, more in fact than there are negative ones - it's just the anti comments are so subhuman and vile they tend to take your breath away and make more of an impact.
Then again, the Mail seems intent on running these kinds of stories, and every time it's the same - hundreds, if not thousands, end up disagreeing with their POV, which is encouraging. That said, it doesn't explain quite WHY the Mail keeps doing these stories when their POV is quite clearlry so at odds with that of its readers.
My guess is they are locked in the Ivory Tower of the newsroom and don't even bother to read the comments on the webpage.
How come we are letting these meddling, evil fools, mess with our lives and our culture like this? Why aren't we shouting and screaming like they do? Why haven't we got a propaganda machine in full swing like they have?
Not only that Peter, but they are, in my opinion, trying to change historical facts as well! I don't see this as educational in the slightest, just manipulative.
Only one comment on the Made for Mums site - so not the issue of burning importance that the antis would like to imagine.