Hello people,
24% of you smoke in the UK. I do too. That's one in four of us. In the North of England (where I'm from), that number is even higher. We like a smoke, a cigarrette, a fag, a ciggie, a puff on a cancer stick. We know it isn't good for us health-wise, but we choose to smoke. Alright, for some of us, it is less a choice and more an addiction, but nonetheless, we choose to inhale the fumes of tobacco that we have set on fire.
We live in a country where smoking is banned in public places where basically speaking, there is a roof. It is not great for us, but for the sake of the 3 in 4, most of us choose to abide by this law. In the main, we believe that the law went too far because it didn't allow us ANYWHERE AT ALL to gather without being rained on. But we smokers are a fairly laid back bunch, and said alright, we'll breath in smelly people's b.o. and farts in pubs because non-smokers shouldn't have to contract diseases from second-hand smoke. We said, alright, we'll go outside to smoke when we're having a drink. We are reasonable people after all.
What is the anti-smoking lobby's reaction to this? More pressure, more veiled abuse and more punishment for something that isn't yet technically a crime. They've decided to go after smokers who attend concerts with a vindictiveness I'm truly pissed off to see. If you attend a concert at the Manchester Evening News Arena or at Manchester Apollo, and you decide part-way through that concert that you'd like a cigarette, think about it very carefully. Because once you step outside, the security staff WILL NOT let you back inside again!!! Basically, the organisation who own these venues are telling us to go fuck ourselves and our money that we spend on tickets doesn't mean shit to them.
If you are a smoker who attends concerts at the MEN, the Apollo or Academy 1 (because when they've finished their refurb, they are implemented the same policy), or indeed a non-smoker who doesn't believe in big brother bullying smokers at every turn, then get in touch with these people:
Manchester.Apollo@Livenation.co.uk (for the Apollo naturally)
enquiries@men-arena.com (for the MEN Arena)
http://www.umu.man.ac.uk/locations/contact.shtml - you can fill in Manchester Academy's contact form there.
E-mail them and continually ask them why they have such a draconian policy towards 24% of their customers and continually ask them to chage this fascist perspective at their venues. Keep it polite, keep it civil (we are people of the smoke after all - we're cool enough not to get abusive, unlike the anti-smoking brigade), but do remind them that they are behaving in a fascist manner, without regard for a quarter of their clientele.
If you feel passionate about this, visit Forrest's website. Forrest are a pro-smoking group, and are keeping the flame alight for the rights of a minority. Good people just asking to be allowed to make informed choices.
Only quit smoking if you personally want to. Don't let other people pressure you into not smoking. Do what you enjoy - life is too short anyway not to. And if you think that smoking is the primary reason for lung disease, think again. It has been proven (by scientists with big white coats, glasses and smoke equipment) that walking down Oxford Street in Manchester (a ten-minute walk at most), is the equivalent to smoking 24 cigarettes. God only knows what walking through the middle of London will do for your lungs. This is a far bigger health risk, yet we don't hear of smokers asking (or FORCING for that matter) non-smokers to only drive their cars indoors, do we?!?! No, we realise the risks of others' behaviour and respect their right to keep on behaving that way, because we share this same small planet with them for the same small time and respect their choices, because it makes them happy. And if someone else is happy, we're happy for them.
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