Puffing

God bless one Lady Trumpington, a British peer doing her darndest to stop a bill in the House of Lords that would prohibit smoking in all public places in Wales. She opposes the measure despite (at the ripe age of 81) smoking for 40 odd years and only quitting in 2002: Do I feel better? No. Am I richer? I don’t know why, but no. Am I fatter? Oh yes. So I am thinking that the only gain has been sheer convenience. Would I start again? No, partly because it would give such smirking pleasure to those peers on the other side of the House who have taunted me through the years. Apart from those bigoted peers the answer is Yes.

‘But at the age of 81 I am left with one pleasure and that’s passive smoking. I love it! To listen to all the rubbish that is spoken concerning passive smoking only confirms me in my belief that somebody will find something wrong with everything if you only give them time.

Paraphrasing Mencken, Heaven forfend that somewhere, sometime, people are enjoying themselves in one of the last frontiers of traditional enjoyment (along with alcohol). I know I am on the Saintsbury wagon lately (and there could be far worse things), but as he says in 1923, reflecting that St. Paul advised Timothy to give up wine if it offended others: But really, considering that we know how for generations 'temperance' has been a fashion and a fad in America; how the American Podsnaps and Grundys have put the screw on public officials, and so forth -- the entire reversal of St. Paul's attitude -- the insisting that other people shan't drink wine because it offends you -- can hardly be called 'magnificent.'

What a nice reflection on modern individualism. In days gone by, people gave up things because they offended others. Today we pass laws to make people give up things because they offend us.

And how inviting does this lovely inn look? Tucked in Monmouthshire, wooden beams, cozy fires, and pints all around. I need an establishment like this.