Monthly Archives: June 2009

Smoking bans are the product of idealism. It’s not implausible to imagine that, in an ideal world, people wouldn’t smoke tobacco, or drink alcohol. After all, it’s largely because people are not living in an ideal world that they smoke … Continue reading →

“Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the last 50 years you are very aware that smoking is not only bad for you, it could very likely kill you. All smokers know this for sure but it doesn’t deter … Continue reading →

I think this is a powerful, iconic image. And now that battered and bleeding smokers are fighting for survival, it’s perhaps something to identify with. We could do with a few more images like it. …. They set out to … Continue reading →

Time was, 50 years ago, when everyone smoked pretty much everywhere. And nobody was in the least bit bothered about it. Or nobody I knew. The restrictions on smoking came in slowly, like a tide gradually and unnoticeably rising up … Continue reading →

I always knew I wasn’t going to like the smoking ban. But I was astonished at the ferocious intensity of what I felt when that day actually dawned. I became angry. Incandescent. And I’ve stayed angry ever since. It’s an … Continue reading →

 I can’t help but think that Tobacco Control has made a disastrous mistake by launching a total war on smokers. Consider. Things were going so well for them. Using the softly-softly approach, they’d managed to convince everyone that smoking caused … Continue reading →

There ought to be a name for the global War on Smoking that has been unleashed in recent years, bringing in smoking bans all around the world. There was a war on smoking underway throughout the latter half of the … Continue reading →

Although my father smoked a lot, I never particularly wanted to emulate him. Throughout the entirety of my childhood, I never nicked a single cigarette of his. Nor took a nip from any of the numerous bottles he kept in … Continue reading →

I mentioned in my last post that I’d begun to divide people into smokers, non-smokers, and anti-smokers. I’d like to take a closer look at that last category: the antismokers.   When I was a boy, 50 or 60 years … Continue reading →

I sketched out in my previous post the impact upon me of  the smoking ban at the my local pub. Previously a daily visitor, I now always sat outside. And then only on warm, sunny days. And sitting outside I … Continue reading →