Paywalled and the archive link doesn’t seem to load. Does anyone have a copy of the article?

All those hours of Helldiving, and it was just boot camp all along.

For Managed Democracy!™

In exchange for smoking.

As in, not quitting ingesting nicotine. Still inhaling foreign substances into the lungs. Vaping is still shit for you.

In the early 2000s the message was “smoking is bad, here is why, this is what it will do to you, please don’t do it”. That message was sinking in to the general public. Smoking was plummeting.

Then austerity came along around the same time as vaping and it became far more convenient to just ask smokers to vape instead of mass education campaigns.

Now the simple answer is just banning it.

It’s not a solution. It normalises government overreach into day to day life, it others people and makes them targets for discrimination, and doesn’t convince people of the ills of smoking.

It’s a dumb idea that polarises people and doesn’t fix the root issue.

Who’s not arguing in good faith now?

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/e-cigarettes-around-95-less-harmful-than-tobacco-estimates-landmark-review

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/e-cigarettes-could-be-prescribed-on-the-nhs-in-world-first

https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/quit-smoking/using-e-cigarettes-to-stop-smoking/

https://www.nhs.uk/better-health/quit-smoking/vaping-to-quit-smoking/vaping-myths-and-the-facts/

That took about 3 seconds of Googling

People IN pubs and bars already enjoy smoke free air. The discussion is about outside beer gardens. Where the wind is. There’s also nothing stopping pubs having their own rules against smoking in their beer gardens already. Why must the law be used to criminalise those who smoke?

I’m not a smoker by the way. I’m pro-smoke reduction even, as stated by my point about education, but I’m anti-authoritarian and anti every faucet of human life being criminalised.

Oh no! Smells! Call the police.

“Yes, police service please. Somebody was stressed at work and decided to take a break to calm down and in doing so inadvertently made my jumper smelly. Can you arrest them please? They’re still here. They’re behind the bar serving pints to everyone, you can’t miss them, their t-shirt is so pongy, poooooeeeyyyyy. I’ll see you in 5 minutes.”

I worked in a pub for a few years, do you know how difficult it is to get the plod to show up? Even if there’s two blokes kicking the shit out of each other it can be a task to get them to respond to the call.

Making it ILLEGAL to smoke outside is ridiculous. Those who say otherwise are far happier with government overreach and authority than they’d otherwise admit.

Edit: to add, remember when we were told sitting outside kept us safe from covid, an airborne virus, because of the constant airflow? Funny how that doesn’t apply to smoking.

Absolutely authoritarian.

Education campaigns are far more effective with far less pushback than draconian bans. Let people choose for themselves.

I remember constant campaigns in the past trying to convince the public of the ills of smoking, and it (slowly) appeared to be working. Then vaping came along, and instead of continuing the education campaigns, the health departments tactics seemed to change to “take up vaping, it’s better than smoking”.

And now, it may just be anecdotal, but smoking appears to me at least, to be on the rise again. I wonder why?

LABOUR rail minister threatened a company with severe financial and reputational damage if they didn’t fire one engineer for doing his job. It’s great to see New New Labour being so pro-worker…

No. New Labour.

Fuck the owners, grow food, grow community.

GrowVeg on YouTube is a great resource, but there’s hundreds, thousands, of people teaching gardening all over the place.

Don’t have a boring patch of grass in your garden that does nothing for you, for biodiversity, or for your community. That’s what the aristocracy did to show off how much land they have and how rich they are that it doesn’t even need to be productive. We don’t need that arrogance.

Grow carrots, tomatoes, strawberries, onions, cabbage, you’d be surprised how many varieties there are that you would think don’t exist looking in the supermarkets.

Be punk, grow food.

What a complete twist of words. Buncha cunts

Let’s definitely pretend one is better than the other.

One seeks an egalitarian future where people’s needs are met and power imbalances are kept in check.

The other seeks strict hierarchy where only those at the tops needs are met, by those at the bottom. And power is kept firmly in the hands of those who wield it.

If your view of far left comes from the likes of the USSR or China, then I have a bridge to sell you.

The eight?

I haven’t seen Gordon Brown in a long time, I thought he was Steve Coogan playing a character at first!

The problem with FPTP is that you can’t just vote based on policies.

You also have to consider who is most likely to win the seat and whether you have to vote AGAINST who you don’t want rather than FOR who you do want.

CGP Grey explains it succinctly, here: https://youtu.be/s7tWHJfhiyo

Nothing to do with austerity, Brexit, or Liz Truss…

If you watch the linked video, it talks about Farage trying to ally himself with Powell and Powell rejecting his advances. So yes, you’re correct. My point was the Tories had a vocal racist in their ranks, and they kicked him out. A racist that Farage idolises.

The Tories are scumbags but at least they have (or had) a veneer of some kind of morals about them. Farage doesn’t have that quality, so to say he’s reminiscent of a 90s or 00s Tory is raising him above his station. Even if it’s an incredibly low bar to begin with.

He shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near a position of power.

https://youtu.be/mfyiSk8Rjc8?si=r_rb5o7QL1EeJDq4

Just a classical racist, authoritarian, immigrant hating, war justifying, commodity trading tory from the 90s or 00s. Perhaps like Enoch Powell? Although he left parliament in the 80s.

Only handy if you live in England or Wales, sadly.

Nice.