‘No Smoking’ Signs

I have never attended a hospital so many time in my life as I have this last twelve months.

Generally speaking, you only pay attention to those matters which immediate impact your needs. EG, “Where is ward C?”. You ‘blank’ everything else. But when your go repeatedly, you start to notice things.

I have noticed the proliferation of ‘No Smoking’ signs before many times but given them little thought. As you drive into along the approach to the hospital, there appears a huge sign saying, “This is a ‘smoke-free’ site”. There are also signs, attached to walls all over the hospital building outdoors, which emphasise the site ban. When I say ‘site’, I mean every inch of several acres.

For some reason, the proliferation of such notices struck me especially today. There are a number of entrances to the hospital which are not the Main Entrance. One such is close to the ward that my wife is in. I used that entrance today to go for an enjoyable smoke for a few minutes. That entrance is in a courtyard. You would not believe how many ‘Smokefree Site’ notices adorn the doors and walls of the outside of that entrance. I doubt that there are more than 15 metres between signs fastened to the walls. They are everywhere. That particular entrance is out of sight from the road, and is likely to be a spot where visitors and patients pop outside for a cig where it is not easy to see them. Thus, the proliferation of signs.

But what does it matter if they are seen?

That is the crux. Imagine a council estate which was dotted with signs saying, “This is a burglary-free site”. Would it stop thieves? But is that not the object of those signs? Is that not the purpose? Is it not intended to brainwash law-abiding smokers into believing that they are common criminals?

And is that not also the purpose of three years of delay in leaving the EU? Is it not to idea to brainwash the electorate into believing that they were wrong to vote for Brexit? Is it not to make them feel like criminals? If we look at the situation in that way, lots of events make sense. It is about how you, in your own mind, see yourself. Am I a criminal?

The word ‘criminal’ is ill-defined. I’m not quite sure that it means anything at all these days. An MP has just been found guilty of fiddling his expenses. Is he therefore a ‘criminal’? Was he a ‘criminal’ when he was doing the fiddling, or only when he was found guilty?

No wonder that MAY ET AL ignore the electorate. It’s easy, over a period of time, using propaganda, to make those people feel like criminals since they ‘did something wrong’.

I would like to see the political ‘Elite’ overthrown, sued, banished, imprisoned, exiled. Politics should NOT be a University Course. You might as well have a course called ‘How to swindle the public’.

The reality in the UK is that most people do not have time ‘to think’. That is the reason that we elect MPs. They are not just ‘representatives’. They are supposed to do the thinking for us. TV appearances by the PM are useless. It is no use writing a book after decisions have been made. The arguments must be made BEFORE the decisions are made, and each MP who voted for some new law must become accountable.

A new politics is on the horizon, but we do not yet know what form it will take.