Smoking Ban – Rare Good News
Exciting news from the London Borough of Wandsworth. Criticised by the Taxpayers Alliance for spending £207,000 in three years on enforcing the smoking ban, there have been no fines or prosecutions.
The latest addition to TheEye’s blogroll is ex-TPA Mark Wallace’s new blog CrashBangWallace, and he’s claiming an exclusive in answering the question of how they have spent so much but achieved so little…
I’m told by a source in Wandsworth that the true reason is much more encouraging from a libertarian point of view – “the officers working on it are essentially under instructions not to catch anyone”.
If that is so, good on Wandsworth for resisting the absurdity of a blanket smoking ban, the encroachment of the nanny state on individual liberty and the obscene redefinition of private companies like pubs and restaurants as “public spaces”.
If the idea of a society that threatens people with prosecution for smoking wasn’t evidence enough, it is surely proof of the nation’s insanity that even when ignoring a ban the council apparently either felt the need or were compelled by central government to squander £200,000 on not doing anything.
It was an appalling waste of money, but spending it on actually bullying smokers and businesses would have been even worse. It is good to know that instead of Wandsworth being “Smoke Free”, it is apparently “Free to Smoke”.
Interesting, but doubtless we’ll hear Wandsworth backtracking rapidly on this. Shame, really. Sometimes if a good thing is going on you should shut up about it for fear of it being ruined.
The only other good thing about Wandsworth .. is that its the home of Young’s Brewery …
http://www.youngs.co.uk/
Should any reader be fortunate enough to find themselves in the Borough, or near any Young’s pub .. I can heartily recommend a pint of “Ram & Spesh” (bottled Ramrod @ 5.0% abv & Young’s Special @ 4.5% abv) …
It’ll set you up very nicely indeed … 😛 😛 😉 😀 😀
Good to know! Doesn’t sound like it’s breakfast-suitable…
If Wandsworth is anything like here they will have just one Smoking Cessastion Officer who only acts upon complaint; ie complaints by Outraged Persons who spots someone flouting the smoking ban and can be arsed to “do something” about it. When will it cease to be illegal not to post those stupid stickers “it is against the law to smoke on thee premises” as though we had not already got their .king message?
I was horrified by the horribly large posters they’ve insisted on forcing churches and listed buildings to display in prominent places (measured in metric, natch) making the place look a mess.
They did something similar over here with huge compulsory pub posters warning about selling drink to minors. Many pubs (including my local) took a swipe back with equally huge notices next to them saying “It Should Be Illegal To Have Posters This Big”.
Agree about it being “Outraged Person of Wandsworth” snitching. Anyone making a report basically is overdue a good kicking….not just for that but for a thousand other arsey things they will have also done that week.