Libertarian activism on the streets of East Grinstead

 

Libertarian Charlie Amos took to the streets of East Grinstead at the weekend to rally some opposition to Sunak's tobacco ban. As you might expect, he got a mixed reception. You can read his amusing account here.

 

When it comes to those who favour the ban the central reason given for it was smoking is bad. A medical professional simply said ‘People are stupid’ and when I asked an older lady whether she would like to sign the petition she said ‘I’m a doctor’ and walked off as if that was reason enough.

... I am pleased to report though there remains a strong contingent of liberals within Britain. A few quotes should illustrate this: ‘Why ban anything’, ‘I am against smoking, but it should be a free choice’, ‘They’ve got no right to tell us what we can and can’t do’, ‘They should allow everything’ and ‘People should have the right to choose’ and ‘I think people should be free to smoke crack’. After explaining how although I thought smoking was bad, but people should be free to do bad things to themselves, to a young shop assistant, I managed to convince her to the cause too (although given she was a smoker ‘on the edge’ this may not have been that hard). Orwell’s name was spontaneously mentioned as was the ‘nanny state’ and ‘Big Brother is watching you’ as well – reassuring facts.

... A side note here is the two people I spoke to who put forward the idea the World Economic Forum is trying to take over the world and control everyone actually favoured the tobacco ban, such is their commitment to freedom. How someone who quotes ‘You will own nothing and be happy’ at people and not be against the tobacco ban frustrates me, because, it shows their opposition to authoritarianism is really skin deep and not really rooted in an intrinsic love of freedom. An older woman who opposes the WEF, who, I had spoken to last year, declined to sign my petition as well. Usually, I’d leave it there, but this woman had a ‘Keep Britain Free’ label on the back of her jacket, so, I thought I’d try and persuade her. Although she opposed ‘the paedophiles and Communists’ at the WEF she would not accept they were the same people as the paternalists, (even when I said paternalism was at the root of the fifteen-minute cities she explicitly opposed), and, when I jibbed her she wanted to keep Britain free, but not to make mistakes such as taking up smoking, she remained resolute in her support for the ban. She ended up taking a leaflet though.

... I must say people are willing to go onto all sorts of tangents when you talk to them in public, this is probably selection bias, i.e., lonely people who never get to talk to anyone will gladly speak to someone, anyone, who is willing to listen to them. This is why I ended up hearing about the situation in Israel, someone being banned from Wetherspoons and foreigners entering the country.