Slim Palmer
(He lives in an anomaly of Northumberland)
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Pssst!...wanna buy some tobacco?
May 27th, 2008 |
Cigarettes will be banned from public display in shops, packets of 10 cigarettes will also be outlawed and vending machines are to be scrapped under proposals, to be published later this week by the Health Secretary Alan Johnson, to stop smoking among young people.
Will it make a difference? I doubt it very much as it’s just another lurch towards social engineering.
My crystal ball sees that the next step towards turning us into a 1984 society is a hole in the wall with a uniformed guard:
A man steps forward, through a whole-body scanner, from a long line of similarly dressed people to approach a small booth at which is sat a truculent ‘Servant of the People’ and places a small metal disc onto the appropriate place on the counter.
MR.PUNTER: Cigarettes please.
GUARD: Got your license?
Punter shows Guard photo/fingerprint/biometric card.
GUARD: Anything else?
MR.PUNTER: I’d like a pie, some milk and some cheese.
GUARD: Where’s your BMI?
Punter rolls up sleeve to show RFID implant chip which guard sweeps with hand-held scanner.
GUARD: Okay, you pass but if it goes two above… no more pies.
MR.PUNTER: Any alcohol this week?
GUARD: License?
Punter rolls up other sleeve to show a similar RFID implant chip which guard sweeps with hand-held scanner.
GUARD: You’ve still got the two units quota from last month. Sorry, no booze for you.
MR.PUNTER: But I’m having a birthday par..?
Guard makes to draw Tazer.
MR.PUNTER: Okay… okay…
GUARD: You may approach the shop.
Mr.Punter takes three steps forward towards a blank wall in which there is a half metre square metal plate, which is heavily armoured with a grill and protected by CCTV, and presses his retrieved token, with the shopping list encoded upon it, into the flashing green slot.
Seconds later a bio-degradable plastic bottle containing three pills and two forty millimetre tubes drops into the recessed tray of the counter.
‘Have a nice day.’ says a robotic voice, ‘And please attend the next queue for your government’s anti-smoking lecture. Failure to do so will negate your license to leave your property.’