The amount Action on Smoking Health raised from voluntary donations in the entire financial year 2008/09. The intense lobbying of this charity is regularly reported in every newspaper in the UK and its activities were pivotal in bringing about a total smoking ban in England.
£6,027
The amount raised in voluntary donations in two days by a small group of blog-readers in order to free Nick Hogan, a man imprisoned for breaching England's total smoking ban (as reported in just one UK newspaper).
Old Holborn and Anna Racoon's fundraising goes on. You can donate here. They have also found an extraordinary passage in a document the government issued to provide 'guidance' for councils:
In addition to the evidence of smoking taking place, the Courts have also indicated that they are taking into consideration the following matters:
• the number of occasions on which the council is able to demonstrate that information and advice on the smokefree requirements have been provided to the person in control;
• the failure by the person in control to take action after the receipt of such information and advice;
and
• public statements made by or on behalf of the person in control:
• that they do not agree with or support the smokefree legislation;
• that they are actively campaigning against it; or
• that they do not intend to do anything more than simply inform people that they should not smoke.
As OH says, this means that what you think of the smoking ban influences how severely you will be treated. What else can this be called but a thoughtcrime ?
"that they do not intend to do anything more than simply inform people that they should not smoke."
ReplyDeleteWhat else are they expected to do?
Use phyiscal force to remove smokers from the premises? Using force against citiziens is the exclusive right of the executive powers of the government.
Denounce smokers? I there an obligation for citiziens to denounce other citiziens? Reminds me of the episodes I heard from my parents about the situation during WWII in the 3rd Reich.
that they do not agree with or support the smokefree legislation
ReplyDeletethat they are actively campaigning against it
I'm not sure how to take these statement. Is a person's disagreement with the legislation to be taken into account in a positive or a negative way by the Court? It fails to clarify the position.
Report to room 101
ReplyDeletethat they do not agree with or support the smokefree legislation
ReplyDeletethat they are actively campaigning against it
Will an arrest warrant be issued for Nigel Farage as he obviously is guilty of the above 'offence' as are millions of smokers.
"As OH says, this means that what you think of the smoking ban influences how severely you will be treated."
ReplyDeleteIs that why the smoker who pushed the woman who told him to stop smoking on an outdoor railway platform has been sent down for four years? Not in our fair, just and free society, surely.....
Back to Nick Hogan - I don't give a damn what the money's used for, to me it represents the strength of feeling against this hateful government and sends out one of those 'clear messages' they're so fond of. It is also a joy that the appalling ASH can't raise in a year what anti-ASH/HMG can raise in a couple of days soured only by the fact that they only exist because my money - and yours - is used to fund them.
Jay
"We are not content with negative obedience, nor even with the most abject submission. When finally you surrender to us, it must be of your own free will. We do not destroy the heretic because he resists us; so long as he resists us we never destroy him. We convert him, we capture his inner mind, we reshape him. We burn all evil and all illusion out of him; we bring him over to our side, not in appearance, but genuinely, heart and soul. We make him one of ourselves before we kill him. It is intolerable to us that an erroneous thought should exist anywhere in the world, however secret and powerless it may be. Even in the instance of death we cannot permit any deviation . . . we make the brain perfect before we blow it out."
ReplyDeleteWhat happens if a publican is serving alone one night in his bar when 100 Hells Angels walk in and proceed to spark up is he supposed to uphold the law and try to stop them?
ReplyDeleteAmazing. So, without smokers' taxes and pharmaceutical company support, ASH would barely have enough money to run a website and pay for a few leaflets.
ReplyDeleteNo question where the source of our ostracism comes from, is there? Not much "grass-roots" support for a war on a significant minority of the population there. How disgraceful!
In history, there was a similar thing happened once, a long time ago.
ReplyDeletehttp://tiomarvo.blogspot.com/2010/03/injustice.html
Anon wrote, "Amazing. So, without smokers' taxes and pharmaceutical company support, ASH would barely have enough money to run a website and pay for a few leaflets.
ReplyDeleteNo question where the source of our ostracism comes from, is there?"
It's even worse over here in the U.S. Anon. According to the American Medical Association the individual state governments over here supply "Tobacco Control" with over 800 MILLION dollars annually (The figure they cite on p. 14 at:
http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/upload/mm/hod_ibot14_doc.doc
is actually 883 million. It has probably increased since then.)
- MJM