A leading Labour-run council has banned staff from smoking at their desks if they are working from home, in what campaigners say is an emerging “moral crusade” by local authorities against tobacco lovers.
Hammersmith and Fulham council, which represents one of the country’s richest areas in London, told its staff in guidance that “any part of a private dwelling used solely for work purposes will be required to be smoke-free”
The war on smoking has always been a moral crusade. It’s never been anything else.
It’s never been about Health. How could it have been when the war on smoking saw smokers expelled from pubs, exiled to the cold and wet outdoors?
The simple fact of the matter is that the antismokers hate smoking. They think, like the late Dr W, that smoking is a filthy habit. And they want to put a stop to it. That’s the beginning and the end of it. But they disguise their moral crusade as a Health measure.
They’re concerned with appearances. They don’t like the sight of smoking. They also don’t like the sight of drinking. And they don’t like the sight of obesity. They have a long list of things they don’t like the sight of, or the sound of, or the idea of. And they want to put a stop to all of them.
And they’re killjoys. They disapprove of anything that people enjoy. Food, sex, drinking, smoking, idleness, luxury.
And they of course make a lot of enemies.
And they are prophets of impending doom.
And they claim the moral high ground. They regard themselves as good people, and better than most. They never have any doubts about it.
They seem to multiply in times of prosperity, and decline in times of hardship.
In our prosperous times they are of course numerous, and they seem to be most numerous in America, the most prosperous country in the world. And their current prophecy of doom is that of Global Warming, which is claimed to be a consequence of our current prosperity, as we generate carbon dioxide (usually just called carbon, which is black) with our industry.
Most American killjoys seem to belong to the Democratic party. Hillary Clinton banned smoking in the White House and Michael Bloomberg banned smoking in New York City, and both have run for the Presidency as Democrats. It seems to be Democrats who are usually behind restrictive environmental protection measures like smoking bans. They often call themselves “progressives”, but if progress is measured by wealth and prosperity and freedom, they are really the enemies of progress.
If such people loathe republican president Donald Trump, it’s because he’s not only very rich, but is ostentatiously and unapologetically rich. And the American economy has boomed during his presidency, with environmental protection slashed. Donald Trump is not a killjoy.
The current coronavirus pandemic provides another excuse for killjoy control freaks to impose draconian restrictions on everyone. But this time they may have gone too far, and made too many enemies, precisely because the new strictures apply to everybody.
Contrary to current polls, I expect Donald Trump to be re-elected in November. It’ll be a big defeat for the killjoys. But they’ll be back. They never really go away.
Frank Davis 
The smoking ban has never been about health. It is indeed a moral crusade. Actually an ‘immoral’ crusade since it triggers oppression and denies individual choice based upon lies and deception.
Nobody will ever dictate what I do in my own home. I very much hope President Trump is re elected.
If it’s a health issue, why didn’t they ban smoking at the Houses of Parliament’s bars?