I don't think there are many that could argue that the smoking ban was brought in on the flimsiest of evidence. No matter what the righteous tell you, they had to manipulate the figures into a mish-mash before they could even produce a statistically-insignificant level of risk ... indoors.
If Government had tabled a vote on banning smoking in the open air, I think we can safely assume that it would have been trashed. Even this pathetic pile of myopic malingerers at Westminster would have seen through that one.
It doesn't stop our (ahem) wildly-successful and not-at-all wasteful NHS throwing our NI contributions at a problem that doesn't exist though, does it?
Patrols aim to stop staff and patients flouting the no-smoking rule in the grounds of two hospitals in Cumbria.
From Monday, all entrances and car parks at the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle and West Cumberland Hospital, Whitehaven, will be regularly checked.
A ban on smoking anywhere in the hospital or its grounds, was put in place in July 2007, but there have many reported incidents of it being ignored.
The health trust said this had been causing distress to non-smokers.
North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust is one of those moronic NHS bodies throughout the country that have decided that a blanket indoor ban which was not voted on democratically by the public, means that they can bring in a blanket outdoor ban, which ... err ... has not only not been democratically voted on by the public, but also has no valid scientific justification, and is unenforceable in law.
Unfortunately, with all the things that NCUH NHS Trust could be spending money on. You know, the usual stuff, curing patients, buying scanners for their hospitals, stopping killing people every now and then, things like that, they choose instead to spend our money on "Hit Squads" to tackle smoking on hospital grounds.
New smoking patrols are today being launched at north Cumbria’s hospitals in a bid to stop those who continue to ignore a high-profile ban.
Bosses at Carlisle’s Cumberland Infirmary and the West Cumberland Hospital, Whitehaven, banned smoking on their premises – both inside and out – in July 2007.
Until now the ban has not been policed, but following complaints from members of the public, bosses have decided to step up their efforts.
I dunno, but perhaps it hasn't been policed before because it isn't a fucking law? Now, however, the efforts are being stepped up. All of it detracting from what these dickheads should be doing. That is, concentrating (and spending their finite supply of funds) on curing people within their walls, not persecuting those outside.
Don't you fuckers EVER talk about certain lifestyles costing the NHS x amount of pounds again when you are spunking what you do have up the wall so gratuitously.
Seriously, is this not the biggest argument ever against the NHS? Enforcing a non-law, using our money to do it, which without any doubt whatsoever, diverts funds from what they are actually there to do. Unless I have got something wrong somehow and the real reason we pay our national insurance is so that some jackbooted troll can be paid to wander around a car park and stop someone smoking in their own car while waiting for a friend or relative.
No, honestly, I'm not joking. That's what they said.
Patrols will be at both hospital sites from today, focusing on all entrances, including outside accident and emergency units, areas behind buildings and car parks.
Those exhaust fumes are fine, it's just a smoker with his windows shut that is the problem. And guess what? It's still not a law, so if you tell them to shove their head up their arse, what can they do? Not a lot.
Good fucking grief.
