The Street Penguins

NO SMOKING WHILST HANDLING

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Foreword

Since the UK smoking ban took effect in July 2007, smokers have spilled onto the streets gasping for that irreverent fag. Far from the days when smoking was portrayed as an act of cool individuality or bohemian sophistication, it is now seen as an anti-social disease which the world’s governments are desperate to cull. Ousted into the streets, smokers huddle together like penguins protecting each other from the cold winds of social change.

As one of those miserable outcasts, I have stood outside buildings observing other smokers, and recognised that here was a perfect opportunity to document these social changes with the help of a camera. With an initial fear of intrusion blossoming gradually into cockiness, I have captured some smokers with prior permission (hence the unnatu-ral poses) and others unaware of my actions. I have experienced mixed reactions – some amusing, others hostile.

In general, smokers’ response to the ban has been meek and guilt-ridden. Some smokers wearing uniforms refused to be photographed for fear of losing their jobs. Three Turkish builders ran away from the camera, convinced I was working for a newspaper, (probably the Daily Mail). One elderly gentleman offered to strip off and pose in the nude smoking a roll-up (which did make me wonder how smoking naturists manage!).

While most smokers have tamely accepted the new social stigma, one outcome has been to see the inter-mingling of the classes, races and cultures. A new class has been born. The outclass.

Yes smoking is bad for you but the question is as governments increasingly interfere into our private lives, how far will they take this health crusade? At what point will they take over our homes and deny us health services for smoking a cigarette or eating a full-fat cheese burger?

My aim was always to photograph smokers from as many different walks of life, from City banker to Big Issue seller, from plumber to old age pensioner – and regret only that time constraints have prevented me following up plans to portray a yet wider range of smokers and situations. As a result of my adventures, I now find myself addicted to photographing smokers and cannot resist the urge to take just one more snap.

Maxine Shaughnessy, May 2008

After studying the

habits of the UK

authorities for years,

I have concluded that

they are antismoking

addicts. Hooked on

hammering tobacco

users, they cannot

get the urge to purge

smokers from society

out of their systems.

The buzz of telling

others how to behave

is just too strong.

Mike Hume, newspaper

columnist & ex-smoker


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Our movements and habits are constantly monitored in Britain. The endless security anouncements at train stations, the ceaseless exhortations to live and eat healthily, and the gaze of CCTV cameras have become omnipresent.

Nathalie Rothschild, editor at Spiked Magazine


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Flicking a cigarette butt out

of a car window has cost a

man £80 and landed him

with a criminal record after

a successful prosecution by

Arun District Council.

03/03/08


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When two members of theRolling Stones, Keith Richardsand Ronnie Wood, lit up cigarettes during a concert at the 02 venue in London, it caused a media storm... forty years ago the Stones had to take drugs or smash things up in order to make the frontpages; now they just have to puff a Malboro.

Nathalie Rothschild, editor at Spiked Magazine


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Anti-smoking addicts are gasping to get their hands on those who do it in private. Already some councils and health authorities say that residents could be denied services if they smoke at home. Last month a couple in North Wales were investigated by their council’s ominously named Public Protection Service for causing an “alleged odour nui-sance” to a neigh-bour by smoking in their own semi-detached house.

Mike Hume, newspaper columnist & ex-smoker


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Rachel - a 20 year old smoker

‘The worst thing

about the ban, is

having to leave

drinks with

bouncers in

nightclubs

whilst going out

for a cigarette.

I’m terrified of

someone spiking

my drink when I

go out.’


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Stuart Waiton - Youth Worker

New Labour’s ambitions

has shrivelled from

creating a socialist

Britain to making

bus-stops smoke-free.

The New Therapy state

sees its task as helping

and guiding an ignorant

‘unaware’ public along

the path to righteous-

ness.

The ceaseless barrage of

everyday health scares

and messages about

‘health awareness’ has

helped create a

widespread self-image

of vulnerability.

The health police has

colonised public space

and slowly creeping into

the private sphere.

Mike Hume, newspaper columnist & ex-smoker


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It is a sign of the times that there has been no storm of protest over the increasingly manipulative and moralistic character of anti-smoking propaganda. In the crusade to reduce mortality from smoking it is considered legitimate to exploit the deepest fears of parents and children. While the law seeks to prohibit smoking in public, the new anti-smoking advert seeks to proscribe it in the private sphere, fomenting domestic strife to achieve this objective. At a time when a wide range of civil liberties are under threat it is alaring that the strategy of using children to police their parents’ behaviour - reminiscent of totalitarian regimes - provokes so little public disquiet.

Dr Michael Fitzpatrick -

author of The Tyranny of Health


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‘What happened to freedom of choice? Pub landlords should be free to decide for themselves whether or not their establish-ments should permit people to light up.

Chris Elliott, pub entertainer


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I am not so much alarmed and depressed by the swift and total nature of the ban as I am struck by the ease of its victory. I haven’t actually lived in Britain for some time, but I would have expected a bit more resistance to such a crude extension of state and schoolmarm power. Is it really true that people do not mind having the cigarette snatched from their hands, everywhere from the boozer to the night-club to the billiard-hall? Are they aware how soon the other shoe will drop, and that people will be told (as they already are being told in some parts of America) that they may not smoke if they live in public housing or use public parks or public beaches? I say it at the risk of embarrassment, but if people have become this accustomed to being told what to do, then I think we have lost something else that cannot quite be quantified.

Christopher Hitchens is a columnist for Vanity Fair


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‘now when I walk into a bar,

I am greeted with the smell of

cleaning fluid and detergent’

Dom McCarthy - writer


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John Baker BBC Action Network

Since the ban came into force we can see the consequences of such a badly drafted and enacted law. Pubs and working men’s clubs are closing down, or at the very least losing money hand over fist. Bingo halls are closing down because of the lack of the smoking trade! People who live in neighbouring homes to a pub or club are complaining about the noise by smokers forced to go outside in all weathers to smoke.


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‘since the smoking

ban, there is a

nasty smell of

sweat lingering in

the club’

Maria - a 23 year old smoker


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The smoking issue shows that the authorities have found an area where they can intervene in our lives and show themselves to be ‘caring’ and ‘attentive’ without provoking much protest.

Rob Lyons - science writer and deputy editor of Spiked magazine


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‘Some American states are now banning smoking in cars, as legislators creep even further into our once private lives’

Alan Miller - Journalist


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It’s tragic to see

that so many in

our governing

caste read 1984

by George Orwell

and viewed it not

as a warning, but

as an instruction

manual.

A comment by an observer


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“For those who stubbornly seek freedom, there can be no more urgent task than to come to understand the mechanisms and practices of indoctrination. These are easy to perceive in the totalitarian societies, much less so in the system of ‘brainwashing under freedom’ to which we are subjected and in which all too often we serve as unwilling

instruments.”

Noam Chomsky


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‘Shop-a-smoker’ hotline

Freephone 0800 587 1667

Great idea to really crack

down on smoking. Maybe

sometime after that if they

have time they could try

and reduce murder, rape,

possession of firearms,

illegal immigration,

burglary, mugging, drug

trafficking, people

trafficking, running

prostitution rackets, tax

and benefit fraud.....but

I agree, important things

must come first.

Online comment by Persian http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk


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No Smoking in Church Please

“Health chiefs are spending thou-

sands of pounds ordering church-

es to put up signs banning smok-

ing.

Senior clerics were fuming over

Government regulations giving

churches and cathedrals

until July 1 to post “no smoking”

signs at their entrances.”

Daily Mail, March 2007

Bishops and cathedral deans

warned that the “nanny state”

rules were unnecessary and

would deface their buildings when

it was almost unheard of for

someone to light up in the pews.

The Dean of Southwark, the Very

Rev Colin Slee, who is the spokes-

man of the Association of English

Cathedrals, was scathing. “It is

such nonsense,” he said.

“One is bound to ask, when did

you last hear of somebody

smoking in church?”

The Bishop of Fulham, the Rt Rev

John Broadhurst, said: “This is

another example of the aggressive

nanny state. The whole thing is

stark staring mad.”

Daily Telegraph, May 2007


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Shop-a-smoker’ hotline

Freephone 0800 587 1667

Can we have a rogue tosser hotline as well? How about a hotline for reporting rogue Barratt starterhomes, the most damaging and dispiriting phenomenon in modern Britain? Or what about rogue high street bookshops, piled high with every kind of shit but never having heard of anyone worth reading? Or a hotline for reporting every waitress who comes up to you and says ‘do you want some black pepper on that?’ I have never smoked and I am now

thinking of taking it up.

Online comment by garsidepotter http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk


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The way forward:

In the United States recently,Franklin Roosevelt’s cigaretteholder was airbrushed from the street-signs in his home town.

A condemned murderer in Florida was forbidden hisrequest for a last cigarette on the grounds - perfectly logical, really - that death row was anabsolutely non-smoking facility.


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The increasing intolerance

of smoking by health

workers is manipulative

and moralistic. Cohesive

anti-smoking policies are

worthless in terms of

encouraging people to

stopsmoking, but are

fantastic in contributing

to the political and moral

climate that treats

smokers as pariahs.

Brid Hehir is a nurse and the

lead for patient and public

involvement in Camden PCT,

London


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‘Let them ban

mortgages’

‘They’re bad

for your

health, too,

and they

also damage

sperm’

A remark from a french musician


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‘Many smokers

support the ban,

some because it

forces them to

smoke less, others

because it’s ‘not

right to make

the workers

breathe in my

smoke’. Other

smokers simply

shrug and note that

they have got to

meet more people,

huddled together

outside having a sly

cigarette.’


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Patio Peoplepat·i·o [pat-ee-oh],

noun

peo·ple [pee-puh],

noun

Definition:

The sad

gangs of

smokers

who now

exit the pub

every time

they want

to light up

and gather

around patio

heaters with

their fellow

social lepers.


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During an interview withDavid Hockney regarding the smoking ban, Marie Woolf, Chief Political Correspondent of the Independent related how the Royal National Institute for the Blind was busy handing out research proving that smoking caused blindness.

“It used to be wanking thatcaused blindness,”

Mr Hockney said.


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SMOKEFREE

FATFREE

ANTISOCIALFREE

RISKFREE

FEARFREE

ALCOHOLFREE

DRUGFREE

LIFEFREE

COMMON SENSEFREE

SEXFREE

FREEFREE


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My smoking habit was one of

the stuffs that I was

unwilling to give up for Christ

before I committed to Him.

However that changed… I

think after a month or less, I

decided to totally stop smoking

as I desired to honor God and

to be a good testimony to His

name since I’ve chosen to

follow Him. That was my

motivation. So 1 week slowly

became 2 and then a month

and without realising much,

I was finally free from this

stronghold in my life. Christ

conquered and took more hold

of my life! Praise the Lord!

To further add on, about a half

a year later, God told me to

stop drinking as well. That was

really a struggle then too. But

I relented almost right away

as I knew what He was doing

for me. He was tearing down

every single stronghold of the

devil that had a grip in my life

and making sure they wouldn’t

have a hold on me again.

Andrew - a disciple of God


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The state performer inantismoking propaganda was Adolf Hitler. As one magazine put it: “brother national socialist, do you know that our Führer is against smoking andthink that every German is responsible to the whole people or all his deeds and emissions, and does not have the right to damage his body with drugs?”

http://www.forces.org/articles/art-fcan/nazi2.


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In Nazi Germany, in July 1943, tobacco use was outlawed in public places for anyone aged less than 18 years. It was considered criminal negligence if drivers were involved in crashes while smoking.

In 1944, smoking was banned on trains and buses in cities. It was also prohibited in many workplaces, public buildings, hospitals, and rest homes. The advertising of smoking products was strictly controlled, and there was discussion on whether people with smoking related illnesses should receive medical care equal to that of patients with illnesses not seen to be self inflicted.

George Davey Smith, Professor - Dept. of Social Medicine, University of Bristol


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Smoking was only one of the health related behaviours that received attention in Nazi Germany. The consump-tion of alcohol was also strongly campaigned against. Fruit and vegetable consumption was encouraged, as was the use of wholemeal bread and the avoidance of fat.

The consumption of whipped cream seems to have been a particular target of disapproval. The official newspaper of the SS, Das Schwarzes Korps, reported on German tourists in Austrian coffee houses and said that anyone would “think Greater Germany was only created so that this raving Philistine rabble can wolf whipped cream.”

George Davey Smith, Professor - Dept. of Social Medicine, University of Bristol


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“Curiously, though, many of the sources of anti-smoking ‘science’ [other than your tax money] are paid for not by neutral universities or academic foundations seeking only the truth, but rather by corporations whose business depends on a constant stream of antismoking information: pharmacetical companies who sell smoking cessation. There’s nothing wrong with for-profit pharmaceutical companies paying to promote the idea that cigarettes are unhealthy and their smoking cessation medicines are better but that ‘s called ‘advertising’ when it’s done in other industries. In the anti-smoking industry, though, it’s called a scientific journal.”

Ezra Levant, Author of The War on Fun


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Rob Lyons, science writer and deputy editor of Spiked magazine

What is missing from all of this is the notion of the self-possessed individual who can cope with the vagaries of life and can rightfully demand that the state stops interfering in his or her life. We do not need ministers, health campaigners, doctors or watchdogs to tell us how to live. Our response to their smoking ban, as with all their other prescriptions, should be a curt:

‘Butt out.’


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THE END


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The Street Penguins

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