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Apparently the Palace of Westminster is exempt from this draconian smoking ban.

Given that the staff already went on strike because they were being treated differently, and worse, than other public servants, I think this is appalling. If it is an argument about protecting workers' health why are they any less worthy of that protection?

Disgraceful. Abolish the lot of them, I say. We can do without Westminster.

Wow! So now using a litter bin could land you with a fine...BBC NEWS | England | Leicestershire | Man faces £50 fine for using bin:

A man who threw away junk mail in a litter bin on his way to work is facing a £50 fine from his local council.
Andy Tierney, 24, from Hinckley in Leicestershire, is reported to have dumped the unwanted mail in a bin located in the street.

Council officers tracked him down using the addresses on the envelopes.

Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council said Mr Tierney had actually dumped a bag of rubbish, including food...

Wowie! I do this all the time. Sort of. If I'm in town, say, and buy a sandwich lunch from M&S or somewhere and get a carrier bag and put my local newspaper, fags and sandwiches in the bag and then swap over the fags for an empty fag packet, don't finish all the sandwiches and complete my thirty-four second in depth review of the local rag, I'll wrap them all up in the plastic bag and put them in the nearest bin. There'd certainly be "food waste" in it if I had an apple core or banana skin or something.

So, calling a police-horse gay, swearing at your best mate in the park and now putting litter in the nearest bin are all bad, and some people think we are not getting more authoritarian and petty as a society?

Spliff -> Psychosis -> Delusions

QED. I sincerely apologize for ever doubting it. Clearly there are some in whom cannabis creates delusions that they can sort the world out.

The ability to talk bollocks late into the night is important for politicians too though.

UPDATE: The BBC has been mulling over whether such revelations actually matter. They (and others ) seem to be implying that so long as people got up to such hijinx before they became "respectable politicians" what they got up to is probably of no issue now.

But actually, on an issue like this it does indeed matter. They are, if you like, living proof that one can indulge a little and not screw up your life entirely (unless one takes the line, as I am increasingly wont to do, that being a politician by definition is screwing up at least others' lives and probably not doing justice to the politician's own talents other than for meddling).

The moral panic crowd want us to believe that getting involved with drugs of any kind is going to outlaw you forever, probably harm you physically and mentally, and leave you on the scrapheap of life. Clearly this is not the case. And the stench of hypocrisy hangs around such people who now tell us that what did no harm to them is something we cannot possibly make up our own mind about.

Technorati Tags: cannabis, drugs laws, Jacqui Smith