Giant victory for freedom: U-turn on smoking ban as Holland ALLOWS lighting up in 2000 bars and pubs

I have been fighting these bans for years as totalitarian, which is exactly what they are. These are the state destroying the notuon of private property so that they can implement any rules they want, anywhere they want to create whatever the utopia-du-jour is, and we all know how well those work out.

At last, Holland, a nation I truly begin to believe has a more solid grip on the notion of individual rights and freedoms than perhaps even the United States at this time, is reversing the anti-freedom smoking bans we have seen sweeping the Western world. Except of course if its a Muslim owned bar or restaurant. Then somehow, it is interfering with their cultural right to smoke if we ban it in their establishments.

From The Mail Online:

By Natalie Wain
Last updated at 2:01 PM on 6th November 2010

Smokers in the Netherlands will now be able to light-up again in over 2000 of the country’s small owner-operated bars or pubs.

The partial over-turning of the blanket ban, which was introduced in 2008, is a huge victory for for smokers’ rights campaigners who had argued that the blanket ban was driving small bar owners out of business.

An incoming coalition government in the country has allowed the partial lifting of the ban for pubs which are less than 743.5 sq ft in size and which are staffed solely by the owner.

Light up: The Netherlands is the first country to partially overturn its smoking ban. Smokers in small bars and pubs will now be able to light up without fear of a fineLight up: The Netherlands is the first country to partially overturn its smoking ban. Smokers in small bars and pubs will now be able to light up without fear of a fine

It is a major victory for anti-ban campaigners and the first relaxing of the controversial ban anywhere in Europe.

Meanwhile in Spain, smokers are up in arms after the announcement that a smoking ban in public places will come into effect in January 2011.

Prominent anti-ban campaigner Weil Maessen told The Sun: ‘This is great news for small bars and the common man. Lower-class people tend to drink in these places and they were being punished’.

‘Small bars have an important social function. Public health workers tell us smoking is bad for you. Well, the ban is very bad for your social and psychological health’.

He added, ‘I hope that the same thing happens in the UK now’.

Dutch health minister Edith Schippers promised that impromptu smoking checks by food and consumer safety inspectors would now be stopped.

Put it out: The UK introduced a blanket smoking ban in 2007 and there are no plans to review the legislationPut it out: The UK introduced a blanket smoking ban in 2007 and there are no plans to review the legislation

‘The new law will allow consumer choice. A sign will inform customers whether or not they are allowed to smoke on the premises,’ she said.

The government has also canceled 280 fines related to the ban.

Ireland was the first European country to introduce the ban in 2004 with the UK following with a blanket ban in 2007.

Labour had initially promised that pubs not serving food and private members’ clubs would be exempt from the ban and many have complained bitterly about the effect to their business.

Earlier this week, it emerged that Trimdon Labour Club in Sedgefield, former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s constituency, is due to close for good, with the smoking ban being partly to blamed for a lack of custom.

But the smoking ban looks set to stay in the UK with no partial exemptions, for the time being at least.

The coalition has indicated that a review of the ban this autumn, promised by Labour, will not take place.

It had been feared that the ban would be extended even further to prohibit smoking in beer gardens and doorways.

Campaigners in favor of the ban point to research from the Department of Health suggesting that in the year after the ban, the number of heart attacks plummeted by 10 per cent.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1327226/Smoking-ban-u-turn-Holland-ALLOWS-lighting-2000-bars-pubs.html#ixzz14XPxDV15

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

15 Replies to “Giant victory for freedom: U-turn on smoking ban as Holland ALLOWS lighting up in 2000 bars and pubs”

  1. Was in Amsterdam last year. Was allowed to smoke a joint made with a fag at the bar, but if i wanted to smoke just a fag i would have to go out side.

  2. The big government types are using the laws passed to protect us from ourselves to advance their cause, I am glad to see the smoking ban removed and I would love to see the seat belt laws removed. The purpose of the laws is to protect us from others and others from us, not us from ourselves.

  3. I honestly never thought I would see this day. The safety NAZIs always win, especially when they use tobacco or children to tighten their grip and increase their control. But not this time. This is truly fantastic news. I never expected this. I assumed that only future generations would start to see the pendulum start to swing in the direction of liberty.

  4. Chris well said. I actually thought it would take a great war to see any kind of personal liberty return anywhere as the trend in democracies seems always towards galloping statism in the name of ‘public health’ of course. Hell I remember making some woman from MADD (Mothers against Drunk Driving) run scrambling down the street when she tried to collect money from me. I told her what a fascist fuck she was and how if they had their way, people wouldn’t be able to have a piece of vanilla cake and ride a bicycle.
    I should add, I am under strict doctors orders not to even visit people who smoke. I cannot be in a room with smokers at all. It makes me quite ill. And even so, I will lobby for the right of bars, restaurants and any private stores for that matter to allow smoking or not at their discretion. Freedom smells a lot netter to me, than tobacco smells bad.

  5. The,Nanny State’ always starts out small, but bit by bit, restrict our freedoms and behavior until we are prisoners in our own land.

  6. Yes the pendalum is starting to swing back to personal liberty, the war won’t be necessary to recover our rights, but it will be necessary to keep them from being removed by force. The West is in turmoil with the US being weakened daily, the wanna be world masters are seeing conquest as a way to keep their internal populations quiet. China is a case in point, their their economy is in a major mess, they have hidden this from the world but the signs are there if you care to look. They cherry pick the data they use to tell us what their economy is doing, and their banks are setting on a massive amount of bad debt, combine these with the massive imbalance in the sexes and you have a recipe for chaos and destruction. But if they conquer some of their neighbors they will have the resource of their neighbors and their young men will have a place to try and find women.
    Another place where trouble is brewing is the Middle East, Iran and their puppets are getting ready for a major war with Israel and unless they wait for 2 years it is going to take time for US support to arrive in Israel. And Egypt and Saudi are holding war games planing for a war with Iran.
    I could go on for a while but you get the idea, the world is poised on the brink of a major war or wars and all we can do is buckle up for the bumpy ride.

  7. Mothers Against Drunk Driving are another one. Somehow, they talked us into throwing away our rights to protection from unjustified search and seizure, and now they’re talking us into accepting another 1920s-style prohibition. If it was the gas chamber for having one beer within a month of operating a motor vehicle, their response would be, “It’s a start”. I resent the hell out of the fact that the media presents them as if they were another branch of government. I did not vote for MADD, I don’t agree with their objectives, I don’t like their methods, and I don’t trust them. Somehow they’ve got us convinced that if the number “.05” appears on a breathalizer machine, you’re three-sheets-to-the-wind and a dangerous criminal to boot, and if you get behind the wheel you’ll slam straight into the nearest school-bus at 90 MPH. And they always, always, always win. In my lifetime, there’s been a dangerous trend towards cracking down on law-abiding citizens, while letting criminals away with more and more. People in Vancouver are now afraid to have even one glass of wine when they go out for dinner. One glass of wine! But it’s OK to shoot heroin right in front of the main police station. I kid you not.

  8. MADD was started by a group of women who lost kids to drunk drivers, their goal was to stop all people who drink from driving, and were very successful in their goal. But drinking and driving was already on the way down when they started their organization, all they did was to demonize booze and set things in motion that may well bring about a new alcohol prohibition. They sold their program as doing this for the children like so many big government programs have been sold, hopefully the pendulum will swing back to the point where individuals have to accept responsibility for their actions.

  9. MADD loves muslims. I’m just waiting until MADD points at muslims saying that they never kill anyone driving drunk because they don’t drink at all.

    At that point MADD will be outed as shark jumpers and tossed into the dustbin of history

  10. The facts like those won’t matter to the anti-drinking Nazi’s they are like all leftists, the truth is what ever advances their agenda.

  11. You know, Richard, I’m not sure that MADD is of the left. I don’t know what their game is, but I suspect they might be Born Again Christians or something.

  12. They aren’t leftist, the original ones are mothers who lost kids to drunk drivers, they wanted to make a difference but the unintended consequence of their actions is to take away some of our rights and make it easier for the left to gain more power. Yes some of them are born again Christians, which is nothing to be ashamed of most born again Christians are nice people who have been vilified by the left. These are people who are mad about the death of a loved on and grieving for them, this doesn’t make what they are doing good, but it doesn’t make them bad. As I said drunk driving was going decreasing when MADD was started. Good intentions don’t mean much, it is the results of their actions that mean something. Remember the original meaning of dogooder was some one who meant to do good but made the situation worse, that description fits most of the dogooders alive today.

  13. I tend to use the term ‘Left’ to mean increased state involvement in our lives, more regulation, and less individual liberties. Canada has become so leftist that a common set of positions in the Canadian dialectic is ‘in what way shall we legislate and regulate this issue’ and nearly never ‘should this thing be a matter for governments to regulate?’ as it has become a given that it is. Whatever it may be. Hence, we live with the kind of selective enforcement on every issue whether it is hate speech or noise bylaws that often, and recently leaning towards always, mean that these same laws and regulations are used to the exact opposite effect that they were created to fix.

    The example of the excellent Quebec website, Point De Bascule, going to the QHRC and asking them to take on the Montreal imam who published electronically and physically a book calling Jews, women and infidels awful names, who broke the letter and the spirit of section 13 of the human rights act, and the HRC refused to hear the case speaks volumes and louder than a jet engine.

  14. You are right about that, but there is the soft left that pushes things like MADD does in the interest of “our own safety”, they don ‘t care about what we think they know best and push it for that reason. Of in the case of MADD they are willing to give away freedom so that they can have an illusion of safety. These people are leftist, just soft not hard left, they will vote for the hard left and help advance their agenda all the while talking about individual safety and health.