Vote Tory, Get Labour

I take it that today's news means Boris has by extension placed himself in Room 101?

He is absolutely correct. The evidence of harm from secondhand smoke indoors is stratospherically exaggerated, so his gesture of lighting up a cigar as a signal of freedom was welcomed in the video's comments by all but a sparse few.

The evidence of harm from smoke in a huge open air park, though, is non-existent. So what's all this pony about, Boris?

Trafalgar and Parliament squares smoking ban call

Smoking could be banned in Trafalgar and Parliament squares as well as the city's parks if a report by London's Health Commission is implemented. 

The smoke free plan would see the mayor use his by-law powers over Trafalgar Square and Parliament Square and his influence over the Royal Parks, the board of which he appoints.

If it's not backed by evidence of harm to others, the only possible goal of this for the Mayor and his unelected report writers is to dictate to others how they should be living their lives. With fines and menaces.

Couple this with his other proposals - amongst a huge list - of pointless poor-bashing minimum alcohol pricing, mandatory and costly traffic light labelling of restaurant menus, and banning fast food outlets within 400 metres of schools - all without the inconvenience of having to be passed through a parliamentary vote - and the last vestiges of Boris's liberal credentials just flew down the khazi.

But get this! The a la carte menu of unelected lefty quangocrat policies (see Word doc download here) is being announced today at County Hall by Tory Boris and ... Labour peer Lord Darzi!

Vote Tory, Get Labour!

Labour and Conservative, bessie mates in ordering you about

Last mention of Lord Darzi on these pages was when he was caught deliberately lying to parliament - with eager help from ASH - about the cost of the tobacco display ban to convenience stores.

Other cheerleaders for this extremist manifesto are the incompetent and embarrassingly gullible Chief Medical Officer Sally Davies, and world-renowned public and democratic process-ignoring health fascist Michael Bloomberg.

In light of the recent big strides by UKIP, is this part of the big plan to regain credibility for professional politicians in the main three parties? By joining forces to declare war on what people freely choose to eat, drink and smoke?

They just don't get it, do they? No wonder the voting share for the entrenched - and on this evidence, allied - political establishment is going down faster than a nympho in a rugby club locker room.