A smoke and a pint? No chance…

Tony Blair’s favourite think-tank, the ippr (note cuddly lower case initials) has just issued a report about how our ‘community pubs’* are under threat.

No mention is made of the effects of the smoking ban in England which came into force less than a week after Blair left office.

Perhaps this piece of draconian legislation has had some effect on the decline of the British local…

Not, it appears, that everyone has to creep outside for a quick smoke.

*Of course, that’s what we all call our local…yet another example of how the people who want to control the way we live haven’t got the first fucking idea about the way we live.

(2) It’s at times like these…

…that I feel ashamed to be British.

Regardless of whether I smoke – and I do – the current proposals to remove displays of tobacco products by 2011 just smack of a draconian lack of joined up thinking.

Yes, tobacco kills, but so does alcohol.

Unlike alcohol, however, excessive consumption of tobacco doesn’t make people violent and abusive.

Give me a smoker over an alcoholic anyday.

There’s an excellently reasoned blog post about the proposed display ban here.