Smoking is indeed a dangerous habit, but anti-smoking activism these days has little to do with health or the public good. Driven by their peculiar mix of self-righteousness, hysteria and rage, the health mullahs have long since abandoned any attempt at accuracy, honesty or good faith as they make their arguments. A case in point was the ban on smoking in bars introduced earlier this year by Ireland’s health minister, oddball busybody Micheal Martin. Amongst the usual – and bogus – claims of the dangers of ‘passive smoking’, Eire’s maddest mullah also threw in the assertion that the ban would have no impact on pubs’ business.
Oh really?
Here’s a paragraph from Friday’s Financial Times:
“In Ireland, a slowdown in drinking generally has been compounded by the ban on smoking in pubs. It has reinforced a steady shift from drinking in the pub to drinking at home and that has hit Guinness sales particularly hard…”