Of Vice And Virtue

The government of my country
have declared that in future
fewer folk will smoke in public.

To save the taxpayer and the health service,
smoking will be even more restricted
away from where people eat in public,
particularly where drink means alcohol
and the language slides from lunch being food
-served where folks sat down to enjoy it-
to being a liquid that is designed
to make the afternoons pass faster
for people who are easily bored.

There has been a minor outcry from
faux libertarians who want to fume,
both about not being in government
and being against government controls
they would choose if they could use them
to best the opposition in their smugness.

There is nothing new about this outcry,
or the inconsistency with which it is pursued;
since the days of canon law, before 1537,
laws that be enforced had to be policed
through the invasion of privacy were common.

That a secular society should raise the same complaints
as a theocracy show how alike many societies are.