Smoking ban
Leanne asks about the smoking ban so I guess I've not covered it yet... How remiss of me!
It is difficult for me as a libertarian to support any legislation that is supplemental to our already overburdened statute book. This government has created a record number of criminal offences and I'm not sure many of them are necessary and I'm positive some of them are horrendous.
But this one's different. Passive smoking is much like Health and Safety in factories and mines. Right now it seems controversial, but why should an employee in a pub or restaurant be subjected to danger cancer-causing smoke in the air where they work. My belief is that if something causes no-one else any harm, it should not be illegal — passive smoking clearly does cause others harm and so is something to legislate on.
For clarification for those on the west of the pond, the law says that smoking is illegal in any place of work which is substantially indoors. This means that restaurants, pubs and casinos (and more) will have to be non-smoking.
It is difficult for me as a libertarian to support any legislation that is supplemental to our already overburdened statute book. This government has created a record number of criminal offences and I'm not sure many of them are necessary and I'm positive some of them are horrendous.
But this one's different. Passive smoking is much like Health and Safety in factories and mines. Right now it seems controversial, but why should an employee in a pub or restaurant be subjected to danger cancer-causing smoke in the air where they work. My belief is that if something causes no-one else any harm, it should not be illegal — passive smoking clearly does cause others harm and so is something to legislate on.
For clarification for those on the west of the pond, the law says that smoking is illegal in any place of work which is substantially indoors. This means that restaurants, pubs and casinos (and more) will have to be non-smoking.