I make no apologies for returning to this subject so quickly, because I am fucking angry.

This week, a campaign has started in the UK to ban smoking in private cars, and ultimately in private homes and public parks.  I knew this was coming but hoped that common sense would prevail.  It hasn’t.

Leading the campaign is Professor John Britton of The Royal College of Physicians.  I am giving his full title which he is using in his campaign to indicate what people are up against.  People are supposed to be cowed by ‘Professor’ and ‘Royal College of Physicians’ and to tip the cap meekly, and to take every word he says as gospel.

I say he’s a liar.

I have no medical qualifications whatsoever, yet I am calling a professor a liar?  How audacious is that?  Who am I to go against the might of the Royal College of Physicians? 

I will tell you my qualifications.

I am a reasonably intelligent person, with a lifetime of experience.  I am well versed in the use of logic and reason.  I also know quite a lot about statistics and experimentation.  I know how statistics are an indicator only and in no way can be used to prove a hypothesis.  I know how to go about proving or disproving a theory and I know that to state something as fact, you have to have unequivocal evidence, born of experimentation to state that it is fact.  In other words, I will only except empirical evidence and not some bland “we all know” or “statistics have shown”. A fact is not a fact just because you state it is a fact.

Britton has stated the forty children die of Cot Death each year as a result of their parents smoking.

That is a lie.

There is no way on the face of this earth that he can have any evidence for this statement.  There may be statistical evidence, but that is anecdotal evidence, not hard fact.  If post mortems found a particular trace element that could only have come from passive smoking, then I would concede that this is fact, but no such trace element exists.  They are merely stating that in forty Cot Death cases, that the parents smoked.  They are therefore branding these parents with a lifetime of guilt for something they didn’t do, and using the death of babies for their own propaganda.  That is fucking disgusting.

He goes on about how smoking causes asthma in children which is another lie.

Asthma amongst children has seen a dramatic increase over recent decades, yet the rate of smoking amongst adults has declined. There is no empirical evidence whatsoever to support his statement that smoking causes asthma.

In his statements, he is very free with such claims that “the smoking ban in the UK is very successful and very popular”.  Very popular?  There are draconian fines for breaking the law, which apply not just to the smoker but to the owner of the premises.   The state have therefore relegated their responsibility to the unfortunate owner to carry out their dirty work for them.  The people policing the people.  Memories of the Soviet Union?  Because of the high compliance, it is assumed that it is popular?  Is the North Korean police state popular because no one is complaining?

John Britton is an intelligent man, yet he is using his title and position to promote draconian laws based on false evidence.  He must know this.  He is helping promote a police state where the rights of the individual are being sledgehammered in the name of children and babies.

Britton is a cunt.