Your Turn WILL Come

So in just 10 days from when I write this, smoking in public places will become illegal. Well, that's good isn't. After all, we've all read the sound science behind passive smoking, and even if you doubt that is an issue, cigarette smoke still gets into your clothes, hair, and of course smoke gets in your eyes. And so from July 1st, pubs, shops & restaurants etc will be much nicer places to be in the view of the majority of us.

And maybe more people will now go to the pub, because before they didn't like the smokey atmosphere. But will they have got too used to their comfortable chair, cheap supermarket 'chemical' drinks, and the mind-numbing pap on the goggle-box? I think maybe they might have. But still, we are upbeat about it, and view the whole thing as a move in the right direction. And so live in hope that more people will now support their local pubs.

But hey, just wait a minute tobacco-picking minute. We aren't smokers, so of course we don't have a problem with the ban. So we sit back and listen to the smokers whine, and make no effort to see their rights. But no, that's fine, they don't have any do they. Until.... What will be banned next - the smart money is on further controls on alcohol, even perhaps a ban by the back door through other means (ie massive tax hikes). Then of course we will be jumping up and down, just like many smokers are now. Will they be keen to support our fight, or as keen as we were to support them?

And what about other folks? The non-drinkers, the folks who never want to visit their local (you know, the ones who'll moan when, as the last in the village, it has to shut through no trade and so drives down the value of their house). Will they defend our right to have a drink - sensibly and in moderation of course, as we failed to defend the smokers right to have a smoke in the warm?

No, I doubt they would. Their world won't be overly affected, it is after all someone elses problem. And then, in time, something they enjoy - say the right to operate dangerous machinery like a lawn mower or strimmer in their own garden - will be picked on by the State Nannies. And it will be their turn - indeed maybe YOUR turn - to get hot under the collar. Trouble is, there'll be no-one left willing to fight for you.

It's worth a thought, isn't it?

Sticking your head in the sand should carry a Govt Health Warning...