Electronic Cigarette

The SuperSmoker is an electronic cigarette intended to give a smoker a fix without the actual smoke.

It'll be interesting to find out what the Mrs. Grundys of the anti-smoking branch of Ingsoc make of this one, seeing as there is no so-called secondhand smoke involved and therefore the current bans can't possibly apply. I'm no fan of coffin nails (I'm a cigar man, myself), but anything that puts the thumb in the eye of the Neopuritans who want to suck all the joy out of life is fine by me.

Smoking Licence

Prof. Julian le Grand, former advisor to Tony Blair, wants to "help" smokers by tabling a proposition that anyone who smokes must be forced to spend £200 on a licence-- provided, that is that he also gets a doctor's signature showing that he is not a "massive risk" and declare himself a "registered addict."

Not surprisingly, Prof. le Grand also proposes banning food manufacturers from adding salt to products, an exercise hour for all employees during the working day and free fruit in offices.

Failure to eat the fruit will, presumably, be made an imprisonable offence.

Nowhere to Hide

So fed up with the nanny state that you want to go for a quiet ride in your car and get away from it all for a bit?

Don't light up, though. The Party has declared it a thoughtcrime "distraction".

Smoke Screen

The BBC, with all the impartiality of Carry Nation at a Real Ale festival, has been at the forefront of supporting the smoking ban as an unmitigated good and demanding that smokers be treated as pariahs to be cast into the outer darkness-- unless the smokers are in a hookah cafe, in which case they are to be treated with sympathy and deference.

In the eyes of the BBC, some smokers are more equal than others.

War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength

This opening sentence of a BBC report about the smoking ban stamping down on Britain is classic (emphasis added):

Buckingham Palace has to, so does 10 Downing Street, and even St Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey. When it comes to the no smoking symbol, the ban on lighting up in enclosed public places is very democratic.

Strange that. I've been a writer & editor for thirty years and until now I didn't know that "democratic" and "totalitarian" were synonyms.

It's For Your Own Good... Really

Portrait of your friendly, neighbourhood Thoughtpoliceman.

Raving Mad

Comment by Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt:

It was deplorable that the woman hostage should be shown smoking. This sends completely the wrong message to our young people.

It isn't often that one sees priorities being so insanely skewed.

No Smoking

The management would like to remind readers that Ephemeral Isle is a no smoking area.

Because there is nothing worse than second-hand smoke over the Internet. Somehow. Sort of. I don't know. It sounded good in the meeting.

Smoking is Doubleplus Ungood

Having crushed all crime and raised the chocoration to 20 grammes, the Thoughtpolice are now going undercover to make sure no one is disobeying Party orders smoking.

Public Smoking Banned in France

French Surrender without a fight. Why am I not surprised?