It’s nearly two years since I gave up smoking (although I have in the interim smoked two cigars and, when the smoking ban came into force, a token roll-up). And, to be fair, I’m not quite as enamoured by the smell of fag smoke as I used to be. But if there’s one thing that makes me want to head down to the nearest tobacconist and order a crate of Player’s Navy Cut, Tor Turkish or even Camels, it’s reading illiberal nonsense like this from Jim Fitzpatrick, who is making fresh threats against smokers who drive:
If you’re lighting up with one hand and have a fag in the other hand then obviously you’ve not got any hands on the wheel.
Does this fool really think that any smoker, bar some 13-year-old novice, tries to light a fag without sticking in his mouth first? The whole point about smoking is that it’s something you do unconsciously: anyone who has smoked a lot will tell you that they’ve often found themselves puffing away whilst having no recollection of lighting up, or that they’ve looked down at a previously-empty ashtray to find it overflowing on the table or floor.
And so it is with smokers who drive. Fag goes in mouth, cigarette lighter comes out of dashboard, puff puff, lighter goes back and the driver hasn’t taken his eyes off the road, and probably doesn’t quite realise he’s even lit up.
This particular crackdown on smokers is simply puritanical nonsense, wasting time and resources that could be used to do something useful.
When I was a kid, I didn’t mind people smoking around me at home: but what used to make me feel iller than anything was being trapped in the back seat of a car whilst two people puffed away in the front. If ministers really want to spoil smokers’ fun, then it would be a lot more satisfactory to take a stand on behalf of those kids who really don’t get to have a say.
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If you are worried about exposing people to harmful fumes, I don’t think that smoking is the main offender.
God yes, there was nothing that brought on car sickness quicker than the fug created by parents in the front seats. But I do feel some affection for a time when parents weren’t quite so precious about their offspring - these days, kids get treated as gingerly as a granny’s bone china tea servece. And we’re all the poorer for it.
Puss
Depresssingly smoking has become the single key area of social policy-inflation. Since no one is willing to speak up for it in politics, its a cheap free policy every time white-paper season comes around. And since its a headline-grabber, the back benchers dont try and maneuver it out. Thus we went from a smoking ban, to a draconian smoking ban (why did they feel the need to piss of the muslim community by banning shishas?), to a raise in the age of smoking, to a fiercer attack in cars.
No-one believes this makes the slightest difference in national health, but it makes good headlines and the majority like a crackdown… So we get tedious policy inflation. Much like the recent increase in difficulty for the theory driving test. Annoys the hell out of me.
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