Old news first:
PARIS August 23, 2005 (WaPo) - In 1991, the French government passed a law requiring restaurants and bars to provide nonsmoking areas. And last week, the national French rail service SNCF announced it would prohibit smoking on all trains starting next year. ... The tobacconists protested when cigarette taxes rose in 2003, but now some workers in the industry regard the proposed ban with gloomy inevitability.
L'UMP GIVES UP ON SMOKING
Political Health First, Then Public Health
FRANCE PUTS SMOKING BAN ON THE BACK BURNER
April 17, 2006 (Telegraph) - Existing laws require cafés and restaurants to establish clearly separated smoking and non-smoking areas. Fed up with these rules being widely ignored, opponents had pinned their hopes on an outright ban.President Jacques Chirac's Right-of-centre government had promised to push a decree to this effect through parliament. Only a week ago, Xavier Bertrand, the health minister, confirmed that a ban was on the agenda and said he wanted the issue addressed "as quickly as possible".
However, on Wednesday, soon after the government's climbdown on the labour law reform, Mr Bertrand performed a U-turn. Instead of outlawing smoking, he announced a "vast consultation" on the issue, to be conducted over the next few months.
We originally began this post with a long involved polemic against Big Daddyism. Suffice it to say that, happy as we are that the Jack pack has forsaken its Big Daddy smoking ban, it is sad -- though not surprising -- that it has done so for lack of political spine.
FRANCE'S SMOKING BAN STUBBED OUT
Villepin Looks For Clear Air On The Way To The Polls.
But Delaying New Laws The Public Support Is A Surprising Route.
April 14, 2006 (Time) - Legislation to prohibit smoking in public places has been postponed by embattled French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, still smarting from the country-wide protests that resulted in his scrapping the much-maligned youth labor reform. Instead, he instructed health minister Xavier Bertrand to study the problem in greater depth and explore various solutions. And if Bertrand can stall for long enough, perhaps the issue will go away until after the 2007 presidential election.If voters are the concern, it's not immediately clear what the government fears. According to a poll conducted by the weekly Journal du Dimanche and IFOP this past October, 80% of the French population supports such a smoking prohibition, and for more than a decade smoking has been officially restricted in bars and restaurants though largely unenforced. The situation is thus the opposite of the recent labor reform protests; in this case, the government would be promoting majority will, not opposing it.
Yet, fearing everything and possessing no political courage, no abiding convictions, the government chooses to do nothing.
Good. If the government is too feckless, if the French want to smoke, then let the French smoke. The government need do no more than provide in law for a business establishment -- as a business prerogative -- to forbid or allow smoking on its premises. Let the market suss out the popular will.
Having said all this, please know that Pave discourages smoking. We encourage our readers to eat sensibly, exercise daily, maintain good hygiene, and take an aspirin a day. We advise all these things, but we will never seek to have your government demand them of you.
[Hat tip on the French: The indispensable Carine]
PFFT (What is this?): France puffs away 3 | Government of fears 4 | Rayonnement français 0
