UK ban on smoking in public - Page 12

Guy N. Heels · 4th March 2008, 23:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by Puma

Absolutely!
That is the social culture we live in today - blame someone else and screw 'em for some money!

There very well maybe too many laws already, but some people will live outside of reasonable behaviour which usually means affecting innocent people, if not 'guided' by some law or other. It is a shame, but that is another reflection of society.

Trouble is, those who insist on living outside of reasonable behaviour probably aren't paying too much attention to the laws on the books either.

Therefore, that's just so much extra ink on paper.

More importantly, the more that people's rights and choices are restricted, the more totalitarian the government becomes. There is no such thing as restricting one person's rights in one area without restricting everyone's rights everywhere.

yozz · 5th March 2008, 17:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by Guy N. Heels

Trouble is, those who insist on living outside of reasonable behaviour probably aren't paying too much attention to the laws on the books either.

Therefore, that's just so much extra ink on paper.

More importantly, the more that people's rights and choices are restricted, the more totalitarian the government becomes. There is no such thing as restricting one person's rights in one area without restricting everyone's rights everywhere.

One of the reasons we have so many laws is that our lawmakers are in the bussines of
making new laws. Not adapting old ones. Whenever they perceive a wrong (or more often
the press does), they want to correct that with a law and say: look how well we do our
job. They might just have looked at what exists already and then apply that. Now we
have so many laws, and many not in agreement with each other, that no normal citizen
can ever be sure he/she is obeying all laws.

A good example is the excitement about women wearing burkas. Should there be a law
to forbid that? It exists already for many years. You are only allowed to disguise
yourself or wear a mask at carnaval. But nobody thinks of applying an old law.....

In the past it used to be in the Netherlands that all citizens were supposed to know the
law. This has been changed a number of years ago into ".... to a reasonable extent".

As long as this means lots of money for lawyers and they are the ones who are in
charge we are just stuck with this system. Don't expect it to change. Back to the
topic: we will just get more and more laws about when and where who is allowed to
smoke what.

Guy N. Heels · 5th March 2008, 20:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by yozz

One of the reasons we have so many laws is that our lawmakers are in the bussines of
making new laws. Not adapting old ones. Whenever they perceive a wrong (or more often
the press does), they want to correct that with a law and say: look how well we do our
job. They might just have looked at what exists already and then apply that. Now we
have so many laws, and many not in agreement with each other, that no normal citizen
can ever be sure he/she is obeying all laws.

A good example is the excitement about women wearing burkas. I assume you mean the Hajib? Should there be a law
to forbid that? It exists already for many years. You are only allowed to disguise
yourself or wear a mask at carnaval. But nobody thinks of applying an old law...

In the past it used to be in the Netherlands that all citizens were supposed to know the
law. This has been changed a number of years ago into "... to a reasonable extent"...

Unfortunately, I must agree. God save us from all the lawyers.