Sunday, April 27, 2008

Whatever happened to the heroes?



I've met Stuart Smith and he comes across as a likeable enough guy. Yeeah, perhaps a chip on his shoulder, brass neck, motormouth . . . dodgy? pft! - dunno. But as a guy who's put his mug about and been in-yer-face as regards the smoking ban he deserves a medal. Whatever was chucked at him he just kept going - even when people who should know better turned on him. He posted his number directly on The Morning Advertiser website so that his critics could contact him direct (only for his post to be removed), been on video, etc, etc. So he's not scared of facing his critics and believes he's done little wrong in this case.

Even the most outlandish behaviour he's been up for got him just a 6 month suspended sentence - hardly Mr Evil.

I hope the fella becomes a folk hero and would love to see his face on the t-shirts of radical youth, bands, on stickers, etc. I'm pretty sure he'd welcome the idea; I was with him when the above shot was taken (but gave a crappy false name 'cos I should've been at work - oooh!) and it was his suggestion for that shot. Being unafraid of any publicity I'm sure he'd have stuck one up his ass if he'd thought on.

Stu may be contacted at stuartsmithsmoker@live.co.uk. Or various other outlets.
Stuart's full trial is on May 13th.


It's still very much an uphill fight though - some small wins and many setbacks - and council and govt departments getting sneakier by the day. We really ought bar these people for good and demand compensation for those who've lost out at this govt's hands.

While we can still talk about it.

Of interest -

Smoking ban challenged in Germany and China

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