Whose business is it anyway?

"Whose business is it who smokes in bars?" asks Joy Faulkner, Libertarianz Spokesman to deregulate tobacco. "I'll tell you," she says, "it's the business of the person who owns the business - the bar-owner. If others wish to patronise that bar - or not - based on that bar-owner's decision, then that is their business; they are free to choose.

"It is definitely not the business of Annette King, Sue Kedgley, Trish Fraser or Margaret Wilson who smokes where," declares Faulkner, who is also coordinator of international group, Smokers of the World Unite. "These bossy-boots busybody bitches can butt out."

Faulkner maintains however that the answer is actually in the smokers' hands, but as usual the smoker will be the ones who comply. "Smokers are their own worst enemy," she says. "They will shrug their shoulder and clutter the doorways of these establishments - and next election will probably even vote for the draconian government that brought in these laws."

That there is a war on right now where many people are dying - and many more could die - while here in New Zealand Nanny State is more concerned with smoking in bars is an irony that doesn't escape Faulkner. "Many of the coalition soldiers fighting to free Iraqis from a dictator will be smokers, but when these smokers return to celebrate their eventual victory they too will no doubt lay down and surrender to the anti-smokers' every demand." In a further irony, Faulkner notes that in this issue of personal freedom, Iraqis actually have more personal freedom than New Zealanders soon will. "Now isn't that something to think about," she says.

Libertarianz: More Freedom - Less Government

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