If anyone is ever in any doubt about the insatiable appetite of the monster that is fascism never being satisfied, then the shrill, accusing screech of the anti-smoking brigade provides an insight. Be under no illusion, this is not about health, it is about control and verboten thinking. The ban on smoking in England has yet to be put in place, and already the nasty little fascists seek their next target; smoking in one’s own home.
A council has confirmed it is investigating a complaint from a neighbour about a couple smoking in their own home.
A woman, who has not been named, has written to the council saying cigarette smoke from next door was “permeating into her living room”.
That’s the problem with the controlling behaviour displayed by the government; it empowers people to go running to their local council in order to settle petty little scores. That’s how the Gestapo became so powerful; it wasn’t because they had tons of agents spying on everyone; it’s because they relied on neighbours and family members harbouring little grudges who were only too willing to go running to the authorities with their tattle telling. The authorities, naturally, are only too willing to cooperate with such behaviour as it empowers them, too:
Gwynedd Council’s public protection service has said it has a duty to investigate.
Bollocks! They have no such duty to do any such thing. Their duty is to tell the petty, mean minded neighbour to go fuck herself. The subject of the complaint, Gavin Gordon-Crawly brushes it off as a “joke”. Gavin hasn’t been paying attention, methinks. This is far from a joke, this is the behemoth of the state control mechanism about to land upon him with all the mighty over reaction it can manage. Gavin smokes 20 a day and his wife is a social smoker. I’m sorry, but in no way is that going to be noticeable in the next door property. I once inherited a room that had been previously inhabited by a chain smoker. There was so much nicotine in the room that the walls were stained with it. Inside, it stank. Outside in the hall and stairway, it was barely noticeable. In the next door house… give over… Nuisance? I don’t think so. No, this is an opportunity for a spiteful neighbour to have a pop. The risk to health is negligible if it exists at all. Certainly not from people smoking in an adjoining property.
I don’t smoke. Mrs Longrider, however does indulge in the odd roll-up. Fortunately, I don’t think that any of our neighbours are likely to be reporting her for smoking. Her response though, is not the same as that of Mrs Gordon-Crawly who takes a fairly meek approach:
I wouldn’t fight it, I’d just give up. If it causes somebody else’s health problems in some ways, I would give it up.
No, Mrs Longrider’s response was along the lines of “fuck ’em, I’ll start to smoke even more.”
Makes me proud…
I’d like to see the particular legislation which states that it is the Council’s statutory obligation to investigate that complaint, other than it having a duty of care to its ratepayers. I’m also not convinced that Councils are legally obliged to investigate all and/or any complaints.
Anyone from Gwynedd or any other Council able to quote which?
In the meantime I’ll be complaining to my local council about the Man in the Moon constantly smiling at me in a lecherous and intrusive manner.
Ah, I see someone else has spotted the fascist tendency. You correctly state the Gestapo did not need thousands of informers – everyone with a grudge became one instantly. It’s a bit like a witch trial. ” If you don’t do what I want I will report you as a witch”. The one I rescently liked the most was the vicar ( 68) at sports day who kissed the top of a little girl’s head. It wasn’t the mother who complained, it was another mother whose daughter ..er.. had not won the prize.
Watch it, chaps and chapesses, it’s going to get worse before it gets better
This is seriously creepy stuff. As to Mrs Longrider, good on her. Bloody meddling bastards some people are 😡
And so it goes; local councils interfere (at the behest of petty neighbors, or just on the council’s own initiative) in more and more areas of our daily ‘private’ lives. State control grows, and grows.
Now, up here in Scotland, the Executive has noticed that the ‘pub smoking ban’ has–as predicted by Forest, the smoking-rights group–resulted in increased smoking at home.
Solution: some twit in government has proposed that all schoolkiddies suffer ‘saliva swab’ tests to determine how much nicotine the darlings are inhaling; the test would be repeated at regular intervals and, if the level was deemed ‘excessive’ (by Government, naturally), then…you guessed it…the heavy hand of some offical ‘Inspector’ would come knocking at the offender’s door, with the message that mum and dad had better cut back on their habit whilst at home.
And so it goes: from one idiocy to the next, while society falls apart and the truly pressing issues of our time are completely bungled.
Have I any respect at all for this Government? No; they are completely, totally incompetent, hypocritical, and malevolently vindictive.
In fact, I’d go so far as to say that Britain is no longer a free state.
Chuck Unsworth asks which piece of legislation imposes a statutory duty to investigate the complaint; I think they must have in mind Section 3 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
It’s a bit literal minded of them, but I wonder if all this isn’t the council realising that the neighbour who made the complaint is a complete pain who’s likely to raise hell if they don’t do anything about it, and, consequently, covering themselves by going through the motions so they can truthfully say, ‘Well, we did investigate your complaint and it’s nonsense’ rather than just binning it and giving the neighbour something else to complain about.
My sister deals with these types of complainers on behalf of North Devon Council. You may have a point there…