ID Cards and the assault on liberty

Though a member of the Labour Party, there's just one thing I'd really like them to Not do, and that's ID cards. Never mind the cost - we're a rich country after all. No, it's the imputation, suddenly, that we're not mature enough, as a people, to have the freedoms that we once did, to take the risks that adult life involves. No: now we must be secure, instead. I say instead because I think it is basically a binary choice between the path of security, control, leading ultimately to totalitarianism, and the path of liberty, of freedom to choose, to associate, to think and declaim and complain and protest and Take Risks. To have the freedom to go where we may, to see whom we might, to say what we think - that is something that we've had and preserved and defended for hundreds of years, and we risk losing it, now.

Smokers and the NHS

So, here's my idea for getting people to take responsibility for their actions as smokers.

People can only buy tobacco products if they produce a card declaring that they're a registered smoker. Registration as a smoker is simple, and free, or at least very cheap.

As part of the registration process, the smoker produces their NHS card, and signs a declaration stating that the NHS need not provide healthcare for any smoking-related illnesses.

So - the smoker gets to exercise his Right to smoke, and gets to understand the Responsibility he takes for his own health as a consequence.

Penalties for buying for an unregistered smoker would be heavy. Smokers can redeem themselves if they quit (i.e. coming off the register for, say, 3 years, gives you back your rights to NHS care).

Smokers - they'll be the death of me

What I REALLY hate, is walking behind people who smoke, who, rather than smoking the damned cigarette, walk along with it in their hand, off to one side so that the sidestream smoke (which does the most damage to passive smokers) drifts off not onto their clothes, making them smell, but onto me, making MY clothes smell and getting up MY nose.

If you're going to smoke, then smoke. Save me the bother of doing it for you. Don't treat your fag like a fashion accessory, get the maximum smoke, nicotine and all the other carcinogenic crap down your lungs as fast as possible, doing us all a favour.

Election reflection #1

It's a Sunday, and it's bright and sunny, but cold in the shade. Why am I writing this instead of getting out there? Well, because I need to get this off my chest. There's an election coming. My question to anyone who might care to bother reading this is this: Despite everything; despite the war on Iraq, despite the creeping totalitarianism of the identity card and the detentions without trial, despite the errors over intelligence about WMD, despite all of that, do we really want the Tories back in? The bunch that made the first 18 years of my adult life a misery? The bunch that destroyed our manufacturing industry and sold off state assets for a quick buck? the bunch that were responsible for interest rates of 14%? the poll tax? Lord Archer and Lady Thatcher and the rest of the sorry sleazy bunch? Well, I don't. So, get out there on May the 5th and keep 'em out.

That's it - off my high horse now. Thanks for listening.