Harry’s Place

Everyone knows that smoking will be banned in enclosed places in England come the 1st of July forcing smokers out of pubs and onto the streets.
What you might not know is that when you’ve finished your cigarette you face an £80 fine for stubbing it out on the pavement:
Councils are expected to raise millions of […]

Air pollution in large British cities is potentially more damaging to health than being exposed to the radioactive fallout of an atomic bomb - according to Todays Indy
I know what. Let’s ban smoking. That will help.

Tax hikes, bans on inhaling in restaurants and pubs…smokers might think they’ve got it tough in Western nations.
Luckily they don’t live in the Caliphate:
Kismayo - Islamic religious police on Tuesday arrested 22 people for smoking in the Somali port of Kismayo, where they will be flogged if found guilty of violating a new tobacco ban, […]

I ended up watching the last series of Sex and the City on DVD last night and wondered how, after many years, six series and huge popularity, the actresses involved would have managed to enjoy any sort of success in other roles. In particular I wondered how Kim Cattrall, the Scouse-born actress who plays serial […]

Okay, so I put my grumpiness down to extreme nicotine withdrawal (I’ve given up for the umteenth time), but a story in London Lite (which I was reading while waiting for Richard Dawkins to begin his lecture last night) had me spluttering with rage.
Well, the London Lite story isn’t online, so here’s a similar report […]

Britain’s oldest man had his 110th birthday marked today with a visit from chancellor Gordon Brown
Henry Allingham, a WW1 veteran who once attributed his old age to “cigarettes, whisky and wild, wild women”, smiled broadly as the chancellor presented him with a letter of good wishes from the Queen, a bottle of House of Commons […]

George Monbiot doesn’t like the fact that current Conservative Party leadership contender Kenneth Clarke is Deputy Chairman of British American Tobacco.
His final paragraph suggests a certain unpleasant new home for Clarke:
I am not suggesting that Clarke has knowingly engaged in illegal activities or has done anything to offend current criminal law. But it seems to […]

I’m back in Lancashire at the moment and today went down to my local shopping centre which has now decided to ban smoking.
It was, however, with great pleasure that I discovered that the only cafe in the centre is rebelling and refusing to go along with the ban. The window to the cafe has the […]