The French government has caved in again. This time, the cause of their discomfiture was the climbdown over their proposed smoking ban.
The tobacco-loving French will be allowed to carry on puffing their Gitanes and Gauloises in smoky bars and bistros after the government caved in on plans to ban smoking in public places.
Ministers, who had already abandoned a controversial youth employment contract after street protests and violence, were accused of “cowardice” by anti-smoking campaigners.
Maybe it is true, and they are cowards. Well, I wish our government was a bit more cowardly when faced with the ire of those who elected them.
Existing laws require cafés and restaurants to establish clearly separated smoking and non-smoking areas. Fed up with these rules being widely ignored, opponents had pinned their hopes on an outright ban.
Anyone who has travelled in France will realise that the “pas de fumer” tables are just that; tables where you may not smoke. Sometimes they are tucked away in another room along with the stores or piles of discarded broken chairs, tables and fruit machines. The French, with typical gallic indifference to rules they don’t like may well have adhered to the letter of the law yet raised a middle finger to its spirit – doubtless sucking on a Gauloises at the same time.
A photograph in the French newspaper Libération added insult to injury for anti-smoking campaigners. Taken in the corridors of the Assemblée Nationale, it showed a suited man puffing away… directly in front of a no smoking sign.
See what I mean? I knew there was a reason that I like France so much.
Zut! Another reason to contemplate emigrating… :bow:
And France is far more secular than Britain. Tony the Baptist’s faith schools would be laughed out of Parliament there, here no one sounds a peep… 🙄
Sacré Bleu! They will be trying to stop them from letting their dogs crap on the pavement next. 😉