Rights of smokers attacked
I would love nothing more than a mass giving up of smoking nationwide, either prior to or following the impending smoking ban.
I desire this, not for any supposed health benefits but to cataclysmically effect the economy that depends so much on the extortion of smokers.
Each year this government rakes in an estimated £7 billion from tobacco taxation in contrast to the estimated £1.5 billion it costs the NHS in possible smoking-induced treatments.
Last time I checked smoking was a lifestyle choice, so it perplexes me that such a popular hobby enjoys such little rights, which will further diminish on July 1.
Obese people, also through lifestyle choices are costing the taxpayer billions in disability allowance, income support and housing benefit without even touching upon the limitless amount they cost the tax payer in NHS care and treatment.
Do they pay any tax on their junk food? Should they instead be banned from filling their ballooned faces in public.
Who is more in danger, a person who can't walk a flight of stairs because of their size, or an otherwise healthy person who enjoys a social cigarette?
The real losers in all this will be the landlords and they have my sympathy. If you don't like smoking or passive smoking, stay out of designated smoking areas and stay out of my face with your preaching.
Be sure though to have the conviction to truly back your opinions and don a protective facial mask every time you enter the vicinity of a vehicle and its equally harmful fumes.
The effects of passive smoking are devastatingly unproven. The freedom so many brave souls died for over half a century ago has become suppressed by a new evil - political correctness.
If you are a smoker, or any other tax payer having the rights stripped from them in these mental modern times, don't just sit back and let it happen.
N D Lewis, Shrewsbury
