Don't let Smoke get in your Eyes
OR PUT OUT THAT FAG
Swaffham Prior Village Hall, following an Act of Parliament, is to become a
non-smoking venue from 1st July. This Act also applies to other Village halls -
and organisations such as the Church. "But surely no-one ever smokes
inside a church"people say.
This is not so. Professor Elizabeth Anscombe did. She was a Professor of Philosophy at Cambridge, a literary executor, editor and translator of Wittgenstein, and was possibly the greatest English philosopher of her generation.
But what has this to do with smoking and the Church. Well, Elizabeth Anscombe, a Roman Catholic, used to read her newspaper and smoke a cigar at the back of her church on a Sunday. Possibly only the Roman Catholic church tolerates such human foibles.
Why a cigar? She was a cigarette chain smoker. But when her second son became
seriously ill she bargained with God that she would give up smoking cigarettes
if he recovered. He did recover, she did give up smoking, and the strain became
too much. She re-examined the bargain with God, realised she had not mentioned
cigars or pipes, and took to smoking these.
Professor Anscombe was what is known as a "well -bosomed" lady, who was outspoken, was the mother of seven children, and died in 2001 at the age of 81. She was a lady who always wore trousers except when pregnant. Once, entering a smart Boston restaurant in the 1960's she was told that ladies were not admitted in trousers. So she simply took them off and went in.
How would she deal with one of the 1,200 council employees who initially are to be trained to sit amongst drinkers under cover? - funded by a £29.5 million grant to councils. Maybe a little biff on the head with an umbrella and with the appropriate comment "silly little man".
But not all is lost for smokers. Under 'Statutory Instrument 2007 No 765
The Smoke-free (Exemptions and Vehicles) Regulations 2007'you can continue
to smoke
- If you are in a submarine at sea (Difficult to go outside)
- If you are in jail (It may make you unhappy) These may not be the most acceptable options for many but there is one further exemption which may increase the number of amateur actors and supporters of the theatre.
- "Where the artistic integrity of a performance makes it appropriate for a person taking part in that performance to smoke, the part of the premises in which that person performs is not smokefree in relation to that person during his performance."
I foresee so many plays having inserted a line like "I shall die if I do not have a cigarette". If the actor died it would severely affect the "artistic integrity"of the play and the Craven A must be allowed.
PS. Our local doyenne of popular entertainment tells me there are more people involved in amateur dramatics than actively play sport - now you know why.