Quote:
Originally Posted by Mickey_
The law is there to protect kids from idiotic parents who decide to smoke in their cars while taking their kids from point A to point B.
Chances are, no one's going to give a crap about (read: not likely to enforce the law) 17 year olds smoking in the car.
You have the 20% "what about the extremes" cases under your microscope, I look at it from the practical, real life "how it's expected to be enforced for 80% of the cases" angle. Simple 80/20 is most likely to apply here as well.
I don't think this has anything to do with the pussification of society, instead I see this as much needed progression towards a more health conscious society (which I think the UK is in dire need of).
Just my two cents.
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That's fair enough, and I do get that - I guess we differ on where we see things headed, and where lines should/shouldn't be drawn as far as gov't interference/micro-managing. History has shown that governments start with the inch before taking the mile, and what irks me the most is this: why isn't smoking illegal? This huge great horrible thing (that I wish I could quit) that's so bad, so damaging, is kept legal but used as a tool to grab more cash with the 'we are just trying to help' bs tacked on to it.
I'd be interested to see other's in this thread's view on banning say guns (*), because of the 1% that are too stupid to keep them out of kid's reach, or have a meltdown and decide today is a good day to have a massacre, etc.
As I keep attempting, and obviously failing, to iterate - this isn't me saying it's fine to smoke in a car with the windows rolled up when you have a 10 year old in the car, it's about the govt's latest cash grab (and anyone who thinks this won't be used as an excuse to stop any car with what appears to be anyone under 18 if the driver is smoking, to earn some money, is living in fantasy land - the old bill are going to have a field day pulling over teenagers in hot hatches with a car full of their mates, even if they are the greatest teenagers around on their way to a movie, whatever) and how far they'll twist the 'for the safety of children', or 'national security', or 'war on drugs', or 'war on terror', or whatever other spin they can put on something to make it more acceptable to the masses, when it comes to earning a few quid
* or more to the point, dishing out on the spot fines. Why a fine? Why not a charge of endangerment or some such? Because that involves more work, and less ROI. The whole fining thing means someone who is a rich but asshole father, can smoke as often as he wants with a 2 year old child in the car, and just pay the fine each time he's caught. With govt's, there's ALWAYS an angle, and as per usual, in this case it's about $$$.