Oh the hypocrisy, the hypocrisy:
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/pol...icle323342.ece
Just read a couple of articles in today's IoS that are relevant to this discussion.
Firstly, David Hockney suggests that, "we have become so scared of dying that we are forgetting to how to live". Wise words indeed.
Secondly, Oliver James says, "Fully three-quarters of people with some history of depression become depressed after they quit, compared with only 30 percent pf people with no such history. Overall, 80 per cent of smokers use it as a drug of solace to self-medicate emotional problems. This evidence has major implications for the debate about smoking in public places. Depressed people tend to agree with John-Paul Sartre that "hell is other people". They find socialising difficult, easily feel irritated and ashamed, worried that they appear ugly or stupid. To enjoy company, to ease thier negative, paranoid ideas, they really do need to smoke. By denying smokers the right to do so when socialising, the Government would be worsening the social isolation of the already isolated one-fifth of the population who are depressed smokers for no medical gain and purely puritanical reasons."
And, "The government, all of us need to understand a simple point: childhood maltreatment is the main cause of depression, which is the main cause of both smoking and drinking. Therapy, not moralising, is the solution."
Certainly worth thinking about in the seemingly emotive issue of smoking in public places.