A permit to smoke? Bring it on!

Tuesday February 19, 2008

The lifestyle fascists want to control our lives, says Brian Monteith, but this time they may have gone a step too far

What is a permit but a license granted by an authority to either maintain a certain standard of performance or supply, or to control numbers, such as in the case of angling to try and preserve fish stocks.

So what does a licence to smoke mean? It could mean that an applicant must meet a certain standard of health to qualify, or if having gained a permit, not falling below certain standards. Of course it won’t be introduced this way but I can already see the BMA’s press statement being drafted in readiness to extend the permit’s power.

“BMA says pregnant women should have smoking permits withdrawn” or “BMA says poor health in Glasgow could be reduced by withdrawing more smoking permits”.

It might seem fantastical but this is how the total smoking ban will come in. There will have to be a justification, and the bully state’s concern for our health will be it. First it will be Glasgow, then the rest of the UK.

Persecuting

The initial price of the smoking permit, a pound, ten pounds, a hundred pounds, it’s irrelevant. It will be introduced at a lower price than originally proposed and then raised and raised so as to reduce the number of people applying for one. So, by raising the price and tightening the health qualifications, fewer and fewer people will be able to smoke – until it’s illegal.

Of course, a smoking permit is not about winning the argument against the freedom to smoke, it’s about persecuting smokers in full gaze of the public, it’s about de-normalising smoking by making smokers pariahs. It’s about making smokers extremists that the public will turn against.

And of course, it’s not just about smokers, it will then be about drinkers, drivers, bungee jumpers – anybody the lifestyle fascists wish to control – the “license to …” will become the thin end of the wedge of controlling our lives.

The great thing about it is that I don’t think the retiring law-abiding British public will stand for it. It’s a step too far – so bring it on I say. I can already see the masses of comradely smokers and non-smokers lighting-up in town squares against this superannuated ID card.

A permit to smoke? Come on, have a go, do you think you’re hard enough?

Brian Monteith, former MSP for mid-Scotland and Fife, is policy director of The Free Society