Rule tyrants take advantage of backlash against tobacco

One sad characteristic of human nature is the desire to impose rules upon others, declaring them to be “for people’s own good”.

Even Hell’s Angels bikers, “born to be wild and free”, have their own rules and hierarchies by which all members are bound.

Sometimes the rules make clear and obvious sense.

Sometimes we must surely wonder at the apparent nonsense which has brought them about.

Consider, if you will, the ban on smoking. I think that now we have all come to accept that smoking in enclosed spaces can cause a degree of collateral damage. Then someone makes a rule that smoking on an opento-the-sky, windswept railway platform must also be banned. Then, at Gatwick Airport, in the midst of a large open space, a tiny spot is set aside as a “designated smoking area”.

The inevitable conclusion here is that, although smoking itself is not illegal (the government would lose so much tax money if it were), individual despots can get their jollies by banning it wherever they can find an opportunity.

Not unreasonably, on the wall outside the main entrance to the William Harvey hospital, a sign can just about be seen through the haze of smoke coming from a phalanx of dedicated smokers, declaring that smoking is not allowed anywhere on hospital premises. So far, so good.

Then we discover that the weight of medical opinion seems to be that the use of electronic cigarettes is a valuable aid to those wishing to come off the tobacco habit. So what, then, do we see on every ‘no smoking’ sign? You’ve got it – the use of electronic cigarettes is also forbidden. This despite the fact that it has apparently been established that the ‘smoke’ emanating from the ‘vapes’ (ghastly term) is entirely innocuous.

Last Sunday, Mrs B and I prepared to set off to the Sunday market to see if we could find a farmer or two to justify the ‘farmers market’ tag.

While I gathered umbrella, waterproof coats and shopping bags, Mrs B took a last minute look at her antisocial media page, where she discovered that the event was not to take place due to inclement weather.

While purveyors of cup cakes, cheeses, jams, chutneys and olives might stay at home to avoid a spot of wind and rain, farmers are made of sterner stuff.

‘Even Hell’s Angels have their own hierarchies’