Keith Richards foi apanhado a fumar!

Só lhe acontecem desgraças. Depois de partir a cabeça ao cair de um coqueiro, acontece-lhe isto ( BBC):

Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards may have flouted Scotland's smoking ban when he played to thousands of fans at Glasgow's Hampden Park.(...) The veteran rocker could face a £50 fine and Hampden Park could also face a £250 penalty if officials prove the venue failed to enforce the ban.

Também o actor Mel Smith que desempenha o papel de Winston Churchill, numa peça em cena em Edimburgo, foi proibido de acender o charuto que a sua personagem naturalmente exige. O charuto passou a estar apagado:

Edinburgh City Council had warned that it would shut the whole venue should the law be broken.
William Burdett Coutts, the venue's artistic director, said he said he had been told he would lose his Fringe licence for good if the actor had smoked during his performance.

Recordo a propósito desta lei proibicionista na Escócia, um texto do jornal Scotsman de Julho passado:

[THE Scottish Parliament] triumphs have included the tokenist abolition of feudalism, the ban on hunting and on fur farming (non-existent in Scotland - they might as well have banned bull-fighting), the oppressive and confiscatory land "reform" laws and the smoking ban. This last measure signalled the Scottish Executive's determination to intrude ever further into people's lifestyles. The depth of the Executive's fanaticism was demonstrated by its refusal to allow smoking even on stage.(...)

Where is the benefit in privatising industries if people are nationalised? The link between an obese drinker huddled over a cigarette outside a Glasgow pub and the high-minded writings of such defenders of liberty as Friedrich von Hayek, Frederic Bastiat and Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn might appear tenuous. In fact it is very close.

Este paternalismo intrusivo do estado, defendido por muitos dada a perturbadora e intolerável incapacidade dos seres humanos fazerem sempre as escolhas que obviamente seriam as melhores para si, colide com príncipios básicos como os ligados aos direitos da propriedade privada (a este propósito lembro o texto "O que é seu é nosso").

Obrigado ao FCG pelo link sobre o guitarrista dos Stones.