Leave us e-smokers to ‘vape’ in peace!

Now e-cigarettes are being targetted by the Ban Brigade.

It will soon be eight years since Scotland introduced its ban on smoking in public places.

For many it was a cause for celebration, particularly those who were concerned about the effects of passive smoking in the workplace, those who didn’t like smelling like an ashtray and those rightly concerned about the nation’s health.

Smoker as I am, I wouldn’t ever argue about those points, knowing as I do how debilitating it can be on your fitness levels and how deadly cigarettes are after watching relatives and friends pass away through smoking related illnesses.

But I vigorously opposed the ban at the time, and I still do.

To me it was an infringement of my civil liberties and another example of government interference. If cigarettes are legal to buy and smoke why should the smoker be persecuted?

Why, if they were so damaging to our health, did the government not just ban the making of the damn things?

Equally, why was the hospitality sector pubs, clubs, bingo halls and restaurants unfairly targeted and not given the freedom to make its own choice on whether establishments became smoke free or not? After all, it was their livelihoods at risk, not the Government’s, and if Joe Public didn’t like it they could vote with their feet and stay away.

I warned that jobs would be lost, many places forced to close, and that the thousands of non smokers we were assured would arrive in droves would not materialise. Sadly I was proved right.

I also said people would just smoke and drink at home, hassle free, and that in itself would cause other social problems, including a rise in domestic violence.

More importantly, I feared it wouldn’t stop our young and impressionable from lighting up, it would just drive them out of sight and out of mind. Again I was right!

Eight years of persecution later, the punitive measures taken to marginalise the smoker have not eased up, they’ve accelerated.

We have bans in parks, bus stops, beaches, uncovered football grounds and now they want to ban you from smoking in your car. Your home will be next!

Shutters have gone up in supermarkets and the packaging turned into a horrific gallery of the macabre. Yet we continue to smoke.

Now, just when you thought they couldn’t ban anything else, the all powerful, totalitarian robots have turned their attention onto those who ‘vape’ [it’s not smoking as what’s being inhaled is vapour] on harmless e-cigs.

Their use has risen dramatically in recent years. Around 1.3 million are now estimated to be in use across the UK and there are no proven ill effects from passive smoking to worry about.

The ‘smoker’ gets their fix without the harm and can now go out and party with their friends instead of being forced to huddle in a cold doorway when they want a puff.

Perfect! No more hassle. Wrong it turns out that some of the big pub groups, including Wetherspoons and Belhaven, have already decided to bar their use, citing the pathetic reason that their staff might think they are the real deal.

What really gets on my dander is that, at the time the ban was implemented, Belhaven was one of its most outspoken critics. They actually fronted a lobby group to stop the restrictions.

Yet now, when a healthier alternative to smoking is found, they are banning its use. How two faced! Surely anything that encourages people to come back out into bars, clubs and restaurants should be welcomed, not frowned upon.

Big Brother and his interfering minions want them regulated, possibly banned, saying they MIGHT cause harm and MIGHT encourage smoking, without one shred of evidence to support the nonsensical arguments.

What next? A ban on pencils, pens or toothpicks because people might suck them instead of a ciggie?

I’d suggest a ban on feet it seems they always have theirs stuck in their interfering gobs!