New Law Bans Smoking in Cars Carrying Children Under 18

It becomes law in Britain today, October 1, 2015, making it illegal for anyone in a car carrying one or more children under 18 - to smoke.

As you can imagine, the law is proving very controversial especially as our “go get 'em” police have said they don't have the man-power to enforce the law, (which carries a £60 pound fine...about $100).

In the UK, many crimes go unpunished due to lack of police personnel, such as speeding; our motorways have become “corridors of death” with modern vehicles able to do 150 MPH, plus and no effective highway patrol. (100 mph seems to be the norm in the fast lane).

If dangerous driving like this (the official limit is 70) receives little attention, it is unlikely the chap doing 90 with the family in the back and sucking on a fat stogie will have the Flying Squad after him! Many people can't get the police to respond to burglaries or domestic violence, and if they do turn up it is often hours after the event.

Those doctors and legislators who have pushed the law through the Commons, etc., say “Even if the police cannot adequately enforce the act, the public will surely understand that smoking in an enclosed space is bad for their children with the dangers well documented of passive smoking and many will stop doing so.” Nah. Addicts, pressurized by our choked roads, will light-up regardless.

This writer is a life-time enemy of tobacco cigarettes and the new Vaping (for the vapid!) is nearly as bad. A fuzzy area here, how will anyone tell the difference as the passing clouds of noxious expelled breath and vapour fog the windows? With 8 months of winter coming, few will have their windows open, not that that affects the legality.

Even with the lethargy expressed by police spokespersons, many thousands will be ticketed, even those having a quiet smoke in the high street as they pick up the kiddywinks from school. This will result in a nice stealth tax for the government: the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, is very creative with this type of income in order to regularly find the money to give to the failed banks and raise the salary of parliamentarians.

My solution is to install smoke alarms in vehicles which would shriek when they pick up smoke. Easily done as the technology exists everywhere.

But that way the Tories won't get all those delicious tax pounds.

Notes:

Fine is £50, not £60

All adults smoking will be fined as well as the driver, (even if only the passengers are smoking)

OK to smoke in onvertibles with roof fully down

E-Cigs are OK (for the moment)

More than 20 countries now have a version of this law, as well as 12 states in the US.