"To me, it’s a hate crime, and I’m not going to take it lying down, " says Scottish publican Hamish Howitt, as he sets out to defy the new UK smoking ban. "I won’t be stopping my customers smoking when the ban comes in."
Taking both a conventional political route (he has founded a political party called UK FAGS — (Fight Against Government Suppression) and having stood recently for city council, Howitt has vowed to fight the ban all the way.
"If they fine me, I won’t pay. I’m happy to fight it out in court."
This is the kind of spirit that will eventually defeat smoking bans as well as some of the other government "suppressions" that are currently on the upswing. No doubt about it. But we do have some advice for Howitt and his fellow fighters.
Attack the lousy, mendacious, self-servicing, consistently misrepresented "scientific" arguments that proponents of smoking bans are using to wedge their way into the self-regarding habits of ordinary citizens. Pull out the junk science, have a good look at it and USE IT against the unprincipled people who have created it and are promoting it.
Specious science peddled by an uncritical mass media to a gullible public is what has created the climate of acceptance for this disgraceful veiled hate movement, and only by tacking the problem at the roots can we ever hope to eradicate it.
To be sure, there are other fronts in the fight. But insofar as public health arguments are the carrier wave for the problem, those public health arguments MUST be addressed and shown up for what they are if we are to have success.
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