3175 days ago
In my podcast yesterday I argued that smokers should not be punished via new budget taxes as this was regressive tax (it hits the poor far harder than the rich). I also said it was "liberal" middle class morality imposed on all of us in a selective way - why not a gay bath-house tax to pay for Aids care? Actually I'd have neither as explained HERE but I ask the question. A reader responds in a very unpleasant way which - as it happens - is also factually wrong:
4394 days ago
We seem to see a new Downfall parody video every couple of months. The Gordon Brown ones were excellent. Some of those since have been weaker.
Well here is a corker on the subject of “plain packaging cigarettes” and the lies and campaigns of the, er…Health Nazis.
Hat tip to the excellent Velvet Glove Iron Fist blog for this.
Enjoy.
4407 days ago
As you may remember, having been booted out of the LinkedIn friends of Greece ( for pointing out that Greece was bust and uncompetitive – hardly a revalation) I am now a keen member of the LinkedIn Friends of Albania ( also LinkedIn West Ham Supporters, Friends of Israel, UKIP etc). But i am beginning to have second thoughts.
As it happens my Dad has bought my spare Albanian Lekke from me and landed in the country on Sunday night for a 10 day working holiday.
4521 days ago
I am still not an ex-smoker. I am delaying that for a few more days. But the weight is falling off apace. However, I read today that the world has one more ex-smoker, namely Tori the Orang-Utang. Chucked lit cigarettes at an Indonesian zoo for the past decade, 15 year old Tori is as addicted as me. But I see that she is now being taken away to an area where the punters cannot feed her craving and she will be going cold turkey tomorrow.
Poor girl. Not even being given patches or chewing gum. Actually I too shall go cold turkey. It has worked all the 28 other times I have given up smoking (sometimes for years at a go). The only thing that really amazes me about this report is not the stupidity of man in giving Tori her fags (I assume that people are stupid and am rarely disappointed in my prejudice) but that not one of the London papers (normally zealous health Nazis) have mentioned the damage that Tori has done to the other Orang-Utans in her enclosure as a result of passive smoking. Surely an open goal missed by the smug media elite? Mind you there is still BBC coverage to come later.
