Britain’s only a few years ahead of the U.S. in Nanny State flabergastery (a word I just made up). First up:

Hundreds of thousands of smokers will be banned from lighting up in their own homes when nurses or other health workers visit them, under controversial new rules drawn up by the nurses’ professional body.

The move dramatically widens the scope of the public clampdown on passive smoking - taking it from the workplace or the pub into the living room. It will trigger fresh debate over the nature of personal freedom versus public health.

The Royal College of Nursing argues that nurses, midwives and health visitors whose jobs involve going out to visit new mothers or the frail and elderly, should not be forced to inhale smoke just because ‘their workplace’ is in other people’s homes.

Not difficult to see how this could apply to housepainters, carpenters, babysitters, plumbers, housecleaners, butlers, and cable guys, is it? In fact, any time anyone other than a member of your immediate family steps into your home, you could probably argue that your home ceases to be “private,” and is now a part of the “public.”

Michael Tacelosky just got an erection.

Next sacrifice at the altar of “public health,” artistic freedom:

The Arctic Monkeys were forced to defend the artwork on the cover of their debut album after a public health official condemned its depiction of smoking.

[...]

He said: “Although the band is from Sheffield, thousands of youngsters in Scotland will buy it because it is good music. It is the fastest-selling album in British history but it gives out the wrong image. With a blatant image of a guy smoking, it will be seen by many as a cool thing to do. It reinforces the idea that smoking is OK and even something you might want to emulate.”

Um, but smoking is cool. It’s a proven fact.

To give you an idea of how much power these idiots have accumulated, check out the reaction from the record label:

Johnny Bradshaw, the product manager for the band at their label, Domino Recording, refuted the claims that the photos made smoking seem appealing.

He said: “I personally think the image is not portraying smoking in a positive light. If anything, it is doing the opposite. The picture is a real photo and a real image. You can see from it that smoking is not doing him the world of good.”

Coward. Here’s the image. And here’s the all-time champ of the genre.

You know what would be fun? A coffee table book filled with pictures of children with cigarettes in their mouths. And they should all look pretty cool. Someone needs to make this happen. My guess is that within a week of publication, you’d get hysterical media coverage, followed by demands from earnest public health officials calling for a ban on pictures of children with cigarettes in their mouths.

Thanks to Dan Rothschild for the links.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 5th, 2006 at 1:03 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Nanny State, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.