"Two California cities are pushing anti-smoking legislation to previously unseen limits by banning tenants from lighting up inside apartment buildings.
Leading the way is Belmont, south of San Francisco, which threatened at one stage to ban smoking anywhere within city limits. Instead, Belmont city council contented itself with a ban on smoking in any building where residents share a common floor or ceiling. It is also banning all smoking within 20ft of a doorway, a common area, and areas used by children. A final vote on the new rules is expected next week, with implementation in November.
In southern California, Calabasas, a suburban community in the hills above Malibu, is going even further. The city council was preparing for a vote last night that would expand anti-smoking laws to encompass apartment buildings."
On the basis that what happens in the US very soon happens in Britain (at least all the bad stuff, like smoking bans, gun crime, muggings, neo-con foreign policy) we can fully expect the fanatical anti-smoking zealots of ASH to be calling for smoking bans in apartment buildings in the UK before too long. Already this week we have heard calls for drivers to be banned from smoking while behind the wheel.
It's time all those who genuinely believe in the freedom of the individual to say enough is enough.
Instead of extending smoking bans still further we ought to be going the other way, and repealing draconian laws which are more appropriate for fascist dictatorships, and not countries which style themselves liberal democracies.
ps
What do U.S. readers think of all this madness? I'd be interested to know.
4 comments:
Would I be right in thinking that you're a smoker?
Not just because this is one of your favourite hobby-horses, but because of the rather more telling detail that your photo makes you look rather older than your stated age.
And of course in California looking wrinkled and raddled is practically a criminal offence.
thanks for the compliment..!
actually I'm 81, and the photo is a recent one....
Is anything legal in California these days? Breathing, for example?
I'm relieved to hear it - I previously thought it was toe-curlingly embarrassing that someone claiming to be 41 would put forward such simplistic premises and childish reasoning under the guise of serious political commentary.
If you are really 81, you at least have the plausible excuse of premature senility.
You still need to correct your sidebar, though.
20 feet from buildings ... Where does that leave residents to smoke? All huddling together on a wasteland a few miles from the city centre?
Outdoors, it really is ridiculous to impose any sort of ban, if one can accept the indoor bans.
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