Jim Wells (DUP)
There are, of course, the naysayers, or, as someone called them, the pseudoJeremiahs, who say that you cannot enforce [a ban on smoking in cars]. We could not have enforced the ban on smoking in restaurants and public houses — the public houses, by the way, which I do not go to. We could not have done that. However, when you see loyalist paramilitaries on the Shankill Road, with studs in their ears, tattoos on their arms and scars on their faces, standing out on the Shankill Road smoking because they know that they are not allowed to smoke in the local bar, the Rangers supporters club, it tells you something. It tells you that the community is enforcing this. The community has decided that it is totally unacceptable and is self-policing.
Therefore, we have not had to have police or environmental health officers raiding bars and restaurants in Northern Ireland. That has not happened, because the law set public opinion on this issue and the people, as a community, believe that this is the right thing to do and have self-policed.So, nothing to do with the threat of huge fines, ruination of their business, and possible imprisonment imposed by central government on publicans who won't police the ban, no?
I presume, then - seeing as the 'community' is 'self-policing' the ban - that Jim would be quite confident in publicly announcing the removal of enforcement powers from local authorities, and once again letting publicans and the community decide what they allow in their pubs and restaurants (that Jim doesn't go to).
Nah, didn't think so.
Don't politicians talk utter cockwaffle sometimes.
