Thursday 14 July 2011

There's Nothing So Bad As A Reformed [Insert Term Here]...

A glimmer of common sense finally penetrates the fog of progressivism:
Smoking shelters could be built in the grounds of Southend Hospital.

New chief executive Jacqueline Totterdell believes trying to enforce the strict no-smoking policy was futile – and it was not “the right time” to encourage smokers to quit their habits when they came for treatment.
And who is most dead-set against such a sensible move? Well, I'll give you three guesses:
But her suggestion has been questioned by former smokers, who claimed it would send out the wrong message.

John Pember, 46, of Stornoway Road, Southend, gave up smoking four years ago after receiving help from the NHS’s Stop Smoking campaign.

He said: “Smoking shelters encourage people to smoke. That’s the simple fact of it.

“If you’re a smoker, the only thing that is going to stop you feeding that addiction is if it’s made tougher for you. If you have to walk to the edge of the hospital grounds or if it’s wet and raining outside, you might think twice.

“You won’t if there’s a shelter there.”
Oh, you aren't thinking positively enough, John!

What if they build the shelter, and stock it with angry bees? Hungry bears? Sharks with fricken' laser beams on their heads?

As ever, the comments are filled with people like John (or perhaps John himself doing a bit of sock puppeting?) all vying with each other to heap as much disgust on the hapless smokers as they can:
Max Impact, Southend says...

Its your choice to smoke, but I do not have a choice when I have to walk through your stinking smoke, 99% of smokes feel put out when they are not permitted to smoke you do NOT have the right to smoke its a privilege whilst I DO have the right not to have to smell your stinking cancer sticks.

No smoking ANYWHERE in public I say smoke in your own home or garden only.

Lets face facts 99% of smokers just drop their dog ends vile putrid creatures all of them.
Don't bother asserting your rights, you don't have any. Anti-smokers have all the rights; there's none left over for you.
tttutor, near Hadleigh says...

How ridiculous - some years later the smokers can return as patients and use our NHS for lung cancer depriving other patients of treatment for non self inflicted health problems.
Yes, smokers don't pay tax, you see. At all. They just use it up. Never mind a Turing word to post in local newspaper comment sites, I think there should be an IQ test...

Some people just have to shoehorn their own personal hobby horse into any discussion going:
Napoleon Bonapart, says...

You will find that most smokers are also bikers as they share the same ignorant characteristics.
I can't help but agree with some commenters, though!
maddriver, Benfleet says...

After reading this lot I need a fag!

12 comments:

Angry Exile said...

I quit smoking mainly because I'd stopped enjoying it and it's a lot of money for something I wasn't getting any pleasure from any more, but every time I read this kind of hatred coming from ex-smokers I feel a bit like a sell out for giving up.

Robert Edwards said...

Like Catholic converts; or, as my Chaplain at school used to note in his sermon:
"Theology weak; thump the pulpit.."

Anonymous said...

Smoking should be encouraged.The government are being very hypocritical.If everyone gave up tomorrow the country would go bankrupt.As well as if we all lived to be 100 who's going to pay the pensions?
Jaded

Angry Exile said...

What do you mean it 'would' go bankrupt? Two trillion in debt and racking up more doesn't qualify? I think the phrase is 'go bankrupt faster'.

Uncle Badger said...

Anti-smoking and pro-cycling zealotry seem to bring out the very worst qualities in the English.

Bill Quango MP said...

Angry exile seems to sum up my views.
Quit without effort a decade ago.

Views on a smoking shelter?
Have it if you want. Doesn't bother me.

Woman on a Raft said...

I'm especially keen on the idea of smoking shelters. I would call them 'pubs' or perhaps 'cafes' and allow people to sell drinks, too.

Then, anybody who wants to smoke can go in one if the owner says it is alright and anybody who wants to can get a job there, or not if they are afraid that somebody else smoking will hurt them. That way, everybody would be protected on the streets from the magic smoke which would only be in the pubs and cafes where the mutually consenting adults are.

English Viking said...

AE,

It's over 4 trillion if you count PPP and Public Sector Pension as well.

*Gulps*

Anonymous said...

Smoking killed my dad, about 2 weeks after his 65th birthday. Isn't that exactly what the govt want? He worked all his life, paid tax on all the cigs he smoked then he died without taking any of it back.

Do I mind if people smoke? No, it's there choice! I have always chosen not to.

English Viking said...

Anon 19:04,

Commiserations on your father.

Mine too died of a smoking related disease.

Yet he never smoked.

Not even a single puff.

And he exercised most vigorously, daily. (He won medals for his stamina at cycling).

Please forgive my insensitivity, won't you? Perhaps your father just died, and smoking had nothing to do with it?

blueknight said...

None so pure as the purified.

JuliaM said...

"...but every time I read this kind of hatred coming from ex-smokers I feel a bit like a sell out for giving up."

I've never started, but this sort of thing makes me almost wish I had!

"Like Catholic converts; or, as my Chaplain at school used to note in his sermon:
"Theology weak; thump the pulpit..""


It dopes have that 'I'm going to outdo you!' whiff of chest-beating competition, doesn't it?

"The government are being very hypocritical.If everyone gave up tomorrow the country would go bankrupt."

AE is right, we're already half-way there!

" That way, everybody would be protected on the streets from the magic smoke which would only be in the pubs and cafes where the mutually consenting adults are."

What an intriguing concept! ;)