Scotland's Smoking Stasi

Personal liberty in Scotland is now about as elusive as the Loch Ness monster. Turns out that local public health officials want their say over when people may smoke in their own homes. The first step is to compile a map of where smokers live, based on the snitching of public-sector workers. With thanks to Baylen Linnekin at To The People:

The public are to be told not to smoke in their own homes as part of plans to protect public sector workers from the effect of passive smoking. ... Ministers have told councils, health boards and social work departments that they should compile a "smokers' map" of Scotland, focusing on those who regularly receive visits from officials and carers. This would identify individual households where a smoker is resident. The smokers would then be sent letters asking them not to smoke for one hour before a council worker or health worker called round. ...

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Executive said ... : "The list could be compiled in the course of the day-to-day duties of those who make home visits."

Your own doctor is now expected to spy on you during house calls, and pass along the information, as this article in the Scotsman notes. 

There are tens of thousands of people who get visits from public sector workers at home. Many council house tenants receive official visitors for a whole variety of reasons; women with babies are visited by midwives and health visitors; the elderly and infirm often get called on by social workers and home helps; and the sick are visited by GPs. 

By the way, check out the staged, tendentious, "smokers-are-disgusting-swine" picture that accompanies the Scotman's piece.

Comments

[David]

That guy looks like he's eating the cigarettes for breakfast!

[Martin Owens]

Dear Rogier:

Not everybody knows that " Stasi" was the acronym for the East German government's stool pigeons and goon squads. Can I suggest you use the phrase "Tobacco Gestapo" instead? Same point, same country, same problem, but wider recognition.