A few days ago I railed against the Royal College of Physicians’ breathtakingly offensive proposal that smoking should be banned in all cars, ostensibly to protect children from passive smoking. I homed in on the proposal that smoking should be banned in all cars irrespective of whether or not children are passengers. The reason for this draconian illiberal attack on our freedom is that a total ban will make enforcement easier. Not so, I argued, using as my example the ban on driving whilst using a mobile phone. This ban is ignored, often by drivers with a child in the car.
Now some bright spark has come up with a fiendish solution to the enforcement issue. A London based inventor, Alfred Benson, has developed a smoke detector linked to an external lamp which lights up (which is more than the occupants of a car will be able to do!) when smoke is detected inside a vehicle. It stays on for an hour thus enabling any passing enforcement officer to take action well after the fag has been smoked. The devilish device is tamper proof. One teething problem being worked on is how to override the device if you drive through smoke from, say, a garden fire and it lights up. I would have thought another problem is how the device will work on a convertible car, but then, who am I to criticise the health fanatics hell bent on destroying our pleasures in life?
Apparently the Department for Transport is ‘interested’ in the device but it is unlikely to become mandatory until there is an EU regulation in place.
I think the whole idea is bats.
Now some bright spark has come up with a fiendish solution to the enforcement issue. A London based inventor, Alfred Benson, has developed a smoke detector linked to an external lamp which lights up (which is more than the occupants of a car will be able to do!) when smoke is detected inside a vehicle. It stays on for an hour thus enabling any passing enforcement officer to take action well after the fag has been smoked. The devilish device is tamper proof. One teething problem being worked on is how to override the device if you drive through smoke from, say, a garden fire and it lights up. I would have thought another problem is how the device will work on a convertible car, but then, who am I to criticise the health fanatics hell bent on destroying our pleasures in life?
Apparently the Department for Transport is ‘interested’ in the device but it is unlikely to become mandatory until there is an EU regulation in place.
I think the whole idea is bats.
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