What a silly campaign, this FOREST lot.

Neil Rafferty, Scottish spokesman for the pro smoking lobby Forest has been critisising the Scottish smoking ban (comming into force in 4 hours time)

"The ban will do nothing to improve the health of the nation, but it will give a warm glow to those who enjoy telling others what to do. The anti-smoking fanatics will use the ban to victimise and stigmatise smokers even further. " Says Raffert.

I have to declare an interest at this point. I smoked for many years and gave up two years ago. Now, first of all I would like to say that even when I smoked 60 a day I thought Forest was the most dishonest, stupid and corrupting intitution. I was once told by a fourteen year old that they smoked because Forest, who know what they are on about, said it was alright really.

The ban on smoking in public places has one flaw, however. It is years too late. If it had come in 20 years ago, I would have probably given up then. That would have been 18 years less of nicoteen in my body. A drug, Mr. Rafferty would might like to know, that is considerably more poisoness than Heroin.

Of course, on Forests own site they do things like portray major health scares as "The phantom menace." They promote a book by Jo Jackson, a musician who has "researched smoking issues in depth over the last three years and has become increasingly sceptical about the overblown hysteria whipped up by recent anti-smoking propaganda".

And his qualifications for such meaningful reserach? Oh yeah, he is a musician - very authoritive that. Personally I will rather take the words of doctors I have worked with over the years and their enourmous catalogues of smoking related deaths. They don't need any research, they don't need lobbies such as Forest distorting facts. They have seen it for themselves in the blood and guts of the dying.

But then unlike Forest, doctors are not funded directly by the tobacco companies - a group who have sistematically lied about the dangers of smoking for decades.

Give it up, Forest, most of us, even those who smoke, wised up to you years ago.

Personally, I would like to see the end of the sale of tobacco. My health would have been way better without it. And of course Forest would cough and splutter into nothngness.

Rat

Read about the Scottish ban: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sco...

Islam has an uphill climb

For a moderate muslim deperate to show his neighbour that Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance, they must want to hide their head in their hands at the news that a man may be excecuted in Afghanistan for converting from Islam to Christianity.

The sin of Apostasy (rejection of a faith) has troubled religion through the centuries. It is a uniquely paranoid crime, levied by insecure and contolling officials against those that may bring their religion into disrepute. Why should a people, united by a faith, worry that a single person of their number decides to walk a different path is beyond me. Why such a crime should be inshrined in law is rediculous!

Islam, as a world religion, has had bad press of late. Some of this is foisted upon it by rediculous groups such as the BNP. Much of it by the unwelcome fanatics and fundamentalists (the curse of many religions). But some, like this instance, is purely from within.

Islamists want to be accepted by the rest of the world, and for the rest of the world to welcome them, and yet seem suprised that we will not accept their right to excecute for adultery, remove hands for theft, issue death threats for people who write books, dress up as suicide bombers to react against pen and ink drawings and now, to kill because someone changed their mind.

No human being has the right to treat others so, what ever the culture, what ever the belief system. It belongs to a different, more violent age, the age when many religions, Christianity included, was punctuated by bararism. The dark years of the dark ages.

In the modern era, when we should be demonstrating that we, this difficult, egotistical human creature, have learnt better ways, can tolerate, educate, discuss and peacefully disagree, Islam, at least in some of its practices around the world, is being left behind. It has to change, not just in the peaceful communities we see in the UK, but through out the world. Maybe it is time that Islam as it seems to exsist here should take the lessons of peace it teaches to the people of Afghanistan, Iran, and other countries. Maybe then Islam will be more comfortable and learn to live with the rest of the world.

See article at news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wor...

Backers and Backbenchers

Just a thought - what is the difference between a backer and a backbencher?

In the case of the Labour Party I would say that the backers are more useful. At least they help the party move forward!

In the case of the Tories, well it is nice that mummy and daddy are so involved with little David's/Tarquin's/Nastasia's (delete or add as appropriate) political career.

Rat

BBC NEWS | Politics | Tory lenders 'feared reprisals'

Read more at news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_...

Do you like junk mail or telephone sales?

Warning - this is about a nasty industry and their attitudes. You may find it annoying.

In the UK there are two little useful services - the Telephone Preference Service and the Mail Preference Service. Both have been set up by the direct marketing industry to comply with a 2003 law making it unlawful to use direct marketing (calls or post) to someone who has said they dont want it.

The idea is simple. You sign up to these services and then they put you on a list used by Direct Marketing Companies and you don't get any more calls or post. And it almost works - I have signed up and the number of people I have to swear at on a daily basis has certainly reduced, though it is far from zero.

However, the Direct Marketing industry is, lets face it, one of the nastier manifestations of the marketing and retailing industry. And they do like to have the last say if they can. So their web sites open with a long article telling you all the reasons why you should NOT sign up. Top of the list, of course, charities. You will be denying these worthy institutions a major source of income! How could you!!!!

And when you sign up to the Telephone Preference Service they send you a confirmation letter - and a plea about chrities again with the option of changing your mind!

If that doesn't totally convince you, then they go on about how you will be missing out on valuable offers that you will want!

What a load of dross. Firstly, I have never seen any offer come through my letter box that I want! All I do is chuck it all away!

Secondly I have never recieved a phone call with something that I want. If I want anything, I go and get it, from the company that has the best value, the best terms, teh best quality, and is polite to the point of subcervient. Anything less and they can go jump!

As for charities, I have NEVER recieved an unsolicited phone call from a charity. The only charitable stuff to land on my doorstep is posted by hand by the charity itself. For the MPS and TPS to go on about denying charities income is devious, inaccurate and completely misleading - just like most of their offers.

If they were so worried about charities, then they would offer an option where you could eliminate everyone except charities. It is a tiny amount of code in a database - dead simple to set up. Cost them pennies. But do they do that?

No.

If you want to keep charities, you have to not sign up, and contact directly yourself all the companies you want to avoid!

How dispicable can and industry get?

Very Ratty.

Read more at www.tpsonline.org.uk/tp...

Mon Dieu! Ou est le President?

French is a beautiful language, I would hate to see it die. As I would hate to see the death of English, Italian, Russian, Chines, Hindi etc.

However, lets be practical - we have to communicate, and if that means that we have a common second language, that is good. English is the obvious choice as, thanks to the British Empire originally and later American Films, English is the most commonly spoken second lanuage on a contry to county basis. English is also a highly developed modern language with the ability to absorb words from other languages easily thanks to its fragmented origins.

And then there is the fact that many modern computer languages use English as their base.

Lastly, English has to be one of the most emphatic languages. It's large vocabulary and succinct grammer make it one of the shortest languages in the world - perfect for advertising! It is the language of marketing, of science and of money. It is the world language of air traffic control, of telecomunications.

M. Chirac. We do not hate you or your language - I love the french, thier food and some of their ideoogy. But to walk out because for practicallity someone uses English, which you speak, is petulant, childish and dangerously nationalistic. You make a mokery of your own country - About time you went.

BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Chirac upset by English address

Read more at news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wor...

Who is to blame?

As a man is convicted of the tragic deaths of the Chnese cocklers two years agao, a company that bought the cockles is said to be not culpable by the jury.

This may be legally so, but is there no ethical culpability? David Eden and son, David Junior, have based ther defence on the idea that since the government and local officials knew what was going on and how dangerous it all was and yet did nothing, it is not the Edens fault if they decide to exploit the situation - it is the governments fault.

What rubbish! They knew the danger, they encouraged the illegal unregulated trade. They knew the cockling was done at night and bad light. But it wasn't their problem, so they let it happen. Who cares if people die, eh? As long as its someoen elses fault.

What ever happened to being a man. To standing up against wrong doing, whatever the legal situation? To always doing right by your fellow man, whom so ever he is?

Perhaps this is missing from the Edens. They certainly seem to be very succesful buck passers.

BBC NEWS | England | Lancashire | Man guilty of 21 cockling deaths

Read more at news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/eng...