Not sober at all. It's a nice feeling.
Tonight I passed around Electrofag with absinthe flavour, to much amusement. If it's going to be banned too, might as well increase its use as far as possible, right?
Interesting news from one smoky drinker. One who doesn't mind the smoking ban as long as there's a shelter outside. His favourite pub is no longer restocking whisky. I think it's clear what that means - and that pub does have a sort-of shelter outside. He'll get the idea eventually.
In a little town adjoining this one, there is but one pub. It has closed. It had no outside shelter.
That smoky drinker is of farming stock. His whole life has been spent outside in all weathers so a five-minute spell in the cold won't even faze him. Likewise, I've spent nights out in the cold so really a quick visit outside isn't going to harm me. He does not realise that many other people, especially nowadays, have grown accustomed to central heating and office work. They cannot cope with the 'get outside to smoke' so they stay home. Those other people are important to the pub's business. We old fogies remember ice on the inside of our windows in the mornings but those who were brought up in the world of storage heaters and radiators do not. We oldies cannot sustain the pubs on our own, it's up to the next generation to do that. Their smoking component is banned and their non-smoking component is, by and large, not interested.
Other EU countries don't seem to have the same Inquisition mentality as here. The damn foreigners are more human than us. At least, their antismokers are more human than ours.
Anyway, I made no mention of the terrible child events in nearby Aberdeen. I was concerned to learn that the stolen child's parents were not able to see him last week, apparently he was ill, but that can happen at this time of year. Rapid fluctuations in temperature can really mess up your immune system.
Eyes and ears at the ready. I'll call in on the grandfather midweek if I can, for a smoke and a chat. Just to see how things are going.
12 comments:
That was a strange case with the council leader being fined for smoking 30 inches next to another person.
http://darklochnagar.blogspot.com/
And as for the secret Aberdeen case.
Well how could anyone vote SNP knowing that they were covering up for past and ongoing abuse of children ? While we pop off to sleep a young child in an Aberdeen home is allegedly being buggered right now. Yet total silence from the lovely Nicola and fragrant Shona Robinson etc........ Scum SNP traitors.
LI, this might warm the cockles of your heart, maybe not, but here in Slovakia, the EU have been informed 'thanks but no thanks ' for the enforcement of the smoking ban.
The EU have been basicaly told to get stuffed, now it is they (the eu ) who have now been 'forced' to roll over, and comply ... or else.
It always starts in the Balkans, and ends in the Balkans .. always.
Only, and i mean only in the UK, can these bans continue to be enforced with such fervent vigour.
Ashtrays have been returned to tables and bars, drinkers, like myself also returned in droves and not one single drinkng establishment 'closed down ' not one !
And, i am the one living in an ex-communist country ?
You'll like this one, Leg-Iron.
As an old entertainer used to say, though, 'Not a lot'...
Julia,
Re your linked article, I’m not at all surprised that families who for one reason or another aren’t able to look after their children but who in the huge majority of cases nevertheless love and care about their welfare very much, are avoiding contacting the busybody, over-authoritarian, politically-correct Social Services and making their own private arrangements. If I had kids and I had problems, Social Services would be the very last people I’d call on for assistance. And, bearing in mind that the vast majority of those terrible cases of child abuse and murder which have hit the headlines over the years have been carried out by the very people which, by their own admission in this article, are people who are “approved of” by the SS (even Victoria Climbie was murdered by a blood relative, for goodness’ sake), this article just highlights more than anything the triumph of idealism over realism which makes Social Services such a dangerous group of people to allow into your life if you are a parent with any kind of problem – as Leg-Iron’s ongoing stolen child story so clearly illustrates.
As most people with a functioning brain already know, the majority of child abuse and neglect happens within the family circle, not outside it, so it would be interesting to know how the percentage of ill-treated children within families compares with their estimated 6% of ill-treated children outside of them. I suspect that the conspicuous absence of a comparative figure in this respect tells us all we need to know.
So, instead of asking: “How can we stop this?” Social Services should be asking themselves: “Why is this happening?” Don't hold your breath, though ........
It's all about control, and power.
And when you see who commissioned this survey, and how it's been uncritically accepted as legitimate 'news' by the Indy, your blood will boil like mine...
I'd be inclined to tell your friend (of the stolen child) the facts, Leg-Iron, from the POV that you're better able to find a solution if you know the facts than if you don't.
The parents might need help and guidance but I believe you have sufficient wisdom and tact to assist this family.
If you did not tell them the facts and things turned [further] awry, how would you feel then? How would your friends feel if they knew that you knew, but didn't tell them?
the majority of child abuse and neglect happens within the family circle
And child abuse is prevalent in state-sponsored organisations - more so that in family environs.
That is a fact that Balls and his ilk don't want you to know.
You know, I've read a lot of things about children taken away by social services for nefarious purposes over the years, mostly on the sort of websites that get derided as weirdy conspiracy theory sites.
it hasn't escaped my notice that a lot of things those sort of websites say (like global warming being a scam) later turn out to be true...
Bottle fed triplet - I don't know why anyone votes for Al the Oily Fish other than they aren't Labour.
The main aim of the party is independence for Scotland but Al wants to swap dependence on England for dependence on the EU. Which, to me, is far worse.
Harri, the smoking ban is breaking down everywhere. But not here. It's more of a taboo subject than immigration.
Mention immigration and you're racist.
Mention smoking and you're a tobacconist.
JuliaM - if this was real life, as opposed to Soviet Labour life, I'd have been surprised.
As it is, it's no surprise at all. people making their own arrangements without the State having a say is heresy now.
I'd like to think the Cameroids will change it all.
I'd like to think that. But I can't.
Fausty - I think I will tell him. But not at a smoky-drinky night.
On a one-to-one visit, sober and quiet.
His son, father of the stolen child, called in at the Smokey Drinky but didn't stay long. He's about 22. He looked 40. He no longer smiles.
The damage Socialists do is self-evident.
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