[thenightwriterblog] The Night Writer: FAGS fighting back

[notify at powerblogs.com]

Posted by The Night Writer:
FAGS fighting back
http://thenightwriterblog.powerblogs.com/posts/1194377921.shtml


   Don't look at me like that. In this case FAGS stands for Fight Against
   Government Suppression, and is the name of an English political party
   established by pub-owner Hamish Howitt, the first pub-owner in England
   to be prosecuted for violating the country's new smoking ban for pubs
   and restaurants. Howitt, a non-smoker himself, pleaded guilty but vows
   to continue to allow smoking in his pub and to not pay the fines.
   From [1]Scotsman.com:

     I'll still ignore smoking ban, vows publican fined £500
     KIM PILLING
     A SCOTTISH pub landlord vowed yesterday to continue to allow his
     customers to flout the smoking ban in England after being fined for
     offences at his bar in Blackpool.
     Hamish Howitt, 55, who was born in Glasgow, was fined £500 and
     ordered to pay £2,000 prosecution costs after he admitted flouting
     the ban, which was introduced in England in July.
     The owner of the Happy Scots Bar is the first publican south of the
     Border to be convicted of breaching the law. Howitt, a non-smoker,
     has been a staunch critic of the ban and set up a political party
     called Fight Against Government Suppression, or FAGS.
     However, District Judge Peter Ward, sentencing Howitt at Blackpool
     Magistrates' Court, said his campaign had been "silly, misguided
     and pointless".

   Granted, it's not exactly William Wallace mooning the Brits, but
   Howitt has definitely set out to pick a fight as the signage on the
   outside walls of his pub demonstrate in these Flickr photos [2]here
   and [3]here. (Normally I would download the images and post them here
   rather than poaching bandwidth by linking to the site but the images
   are copyrighted and I don't want to stretch the "fair-use" doctrine,
   especially when I don't know who to credit for the originals).
   Howitt doesn't risk losing his head (merely his pub license) for his
   violations, though judging by the comments from readers at the end of
   the article, there are some who wouldn't mind seeing him drawn and
   quartered.
   As a dedicated non-smoker myself (never smoked, in fact) and someone
   who has deliberately avoided public places that are too smokey, I
   nevertheless side with the rights of private property owners to manage
   their legal businesses (and customers using legal products) as they
   see fit, free from government encroachment, especially when dubious
   science is involved. (I'm sure it won't be long before some study
   links the number of smokers being forced outside to man-made global
   warming.)

References

   1. http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=1761792007
   2. http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=1678685089&size=o
   3. http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=1678682923&size=o