Its an old adage that 'Bad Facts make for Bad Laws' and the total ban smoking law is a case in point .... what should have been a simple business decision (either they were or weren't smoking pubs) was politicised by the health fascists of the left, and became a total ban, enforced by fines and threats of imprisonment.
The result of this legislative overkill was that for simply smoking a cigarette in a 'public' building a subject of the crown could be imprisoned (as opposed to being career criminal who threatens to kill a family, in which case you get a
suspended sentence).
Needless to say, someone would eventually be imprisoned by this draconian law and this week saw the
first man imprisoned under it, simply because he couldn't pay his fines imposed for smoking in a pub. Ex-publican (tenant landlord) Mr Nick Hogan, from Chorley, Lancashire is now facing six months in prison for failing to pay a fine of £10,000 (£3,000 plus £7,000 costs) imposed for smoking ban breaches that occurred at the two Bolton pubs he ran in January 2008.
His wife said that after he lost his job running the pubs following the court case, he couldn't keep up with his fine repayments but they never expected that he would go to prison.
She said: "
He's not a smoking campaigner or anything like that. He didn't want to change the law, he just thought if people wanted to smoke it should be their choice."
"
We never expected him to go to jail. He hasn't harmed anybody and he isn't a criminal. He was allowed to ring me from jail last night but we could only speak for just two minutes. He is devastated."
Sadly in a PC Britain she's wrong, he is classed as a 'criminal' and then firstly left unemployed, and then imprisoned, all because they wrongly believed that in Britain "
if people wanted to smoke it should be their choice".
