Michael Portillo round about 1980, got it right when he raised the subject of “The Silent Majority” – tens of millions of Brits who quietly ignore vociferous protest groups, the ban-everything brigades, the politically correct, the single-issue eccentrics, the swollen army of social workers and civil servants with ever-more power and ever-less sense. The incompetent successive governments, the “Private Members Bills”, which together, worked to slowly erode remaining personal freedoms and our traditional way of life. Parents are no longer trusted to discipline their children. A law was created that allowed children to “divorce” their parents. Divorce itself became easier and more common in the wake of the breakdown of family values. We see pregnant 12 year olds, cocaine in the First Grade and the removal of classroom discipline. We have an arrogant police force bogged down by paperwork, while serious crime blossoms and minor crime goes unreported.

Why bother? An Englishman’s castle turned into an alarmed fortress. We can’t stop drug dependency, so let’s legalise it, treat drug abusers. Alcoholism is on the rise, so we’ll extend opening hours. The highest personal debt figures in Europe – so we’ll open casinos! Old Age Pensioners who throughout their working life contributed to the wealth of the fifth largest economy in the world – now dubbed a drain on the Working Class Taxpayer. So you will have to keep working until you reach seventy – unless, of course, you are a Civil Servant, an MP or part of the Ruling Class – then you can retire at sixty.

You see, the “Silent Majority” was led to believe that National Insurance Contributions were in part put aside for pensions….. Not true! The money was squandered elsewhere, such as on Benefit Fraud, Sickness Pay, a shambolic Health Service, War and jobs for the boys.

Am I peed off? No. I phoned my Mum at Christmas… she’s 95. “Hello Son, bit slow in coming to the phone. I was smoking a fag, wanted to make sure I stubbed it out”. She lived through two world wars and countless recessions, smoking Capstans Full Strength, Woodbines and.. when there was nothing else those evil smelling Pashas. When I was a kid, cinemas had cigarette trays on every seat – the projector was wreathed in smoke. We, the “drain on the taxpayers” are the 11 million or more survivors of “passive smoking”. Why?, because we failed to die from obesity, cancer, stress, AIDS, drugs or any of the new ways our society has found to kill us.

Of course, smoking is a filthy habit. It impregnates clothing, discolours TV screens / windows /decoration. But scoffing fast food, obesity, laziness, poverty, stress, pharmaceuticals, insecurity, debt… Why not ban everything? Indeed why not ban Freedom?