It’s nice to see our national broadcaster being so balanced and impartial.

There were a few things I noticed about this report.

Regarding impartiality, I noticed that all the smokers were either filmed with their back to camera or in soft focus.  By not showing their faces, the report gives the impression that the smokers are non-people and that like criminals must not be identified.

Also when they did their little sampling of opinion, wasn’t it strange how each clip either showed a large crowd of children passing or else the interviewee was actually holding a child?  Why didn’t they interview a smoker?  They found them earlier, so could easily have asked for an opinion there?  Isn’t it strange that they couldn’t find anyone to say that the whole concept of banning smoking outdoors is extremism and the Bully State at its worst?

Of course Luke Clancy was allowed to trot out that old lie – that there is “no safe level”.  He then compared smoke to asbestos which, while great propaganda is like comparing apples and cannon balls.  Asbestos is a known cause of asbestosis.  It is a defined hazard, and will appear on many death certificates.  But still I would breath asbestos dust if the quantity was below the danger limit because – yes – there is a safe level of asbestos. If there weren’t then every person who ever came in contact with raw asbestos [myself included] would be dead by now.

Incidentally I hadn’t heard of the “Tobacco Free Research Institute” so I looked them up.  Is it not interesting that your tax money and mine is being used by the government to lobby the government?  Also I might add, your charity donations to the Irish Heart Foundation and the Irish Cancer Society?

And I always thought those donations went into research.