What Makes People Sink so Low?

Ninewells worker ‘caught puffing’ next to hospital’s ‘no smoking’ sign

'Caught puffing' completely legally in the open air. So some busybody decided to photograph this person and complain about them to the newspapers? What makes somebody do such a thing? How can you hate smokers so much that you photograph them without permission, having a legal smoke and pass the picture on to the papers?

And how can the papers think this is a story that is worthy of or even needs to be published? They have actually taken down the article now, so I can't link to it, but I did save it in my Pocket list

A hospital worker appears to have been caught having a sneaky smoke at Ninewells – right beside a “no smoking” sign.
The worker seems to be wearing a lanyard around his neck and has a large key attached to his belt.

So what!?

A cigarette can clearly be seen in his hand, just a few feet away from a large sign that reads: “Please respect our No Smoking policy on this site.”

Well he clearly does not respect the no smoking policy, probably because it's complete bollocks and he's not doing any harm having a smoke in the open air

The cheeky smoker was snapped by a Dundee resident visiting a relative in the hospital.

So who is this resident?

The man, who didn’t want to be named [...]

Seriously!? The guy who took this picture did not want to be named, yet the paper publishes this:

This all seems a bit...

...hang on...

...what?

He said: “I’d just dropped off relatives at the hospital and saw this man smoking.
“I’ve been coming and going a lot recently and I’ve seen him telling people outside there’s no smoking allowed. It’s the pot calling the kettle black.
“I recognised him right away, just out having his fag, right beside the front door.
“He would always go around telling people off for smoking – and I thought it was quite amusing, quite funny.”

My piss was really starting to boil while reading the first half of that article. I even Tweeted about it before finishing. But this is a little different. The man having a smoke in front of the no smoking sign, the man who I was just about to vehemently defend on my blog, is the man who enforces the no smoking rule and tells everyone else to put their fags out*

Fuck it then, he should be shamed. Harassing smokers and then flouting the rules himself. What makes people sink so low?

The no smoking policies adopted by a lot of hospitals these days is very wrong, making patients, visitors and staff go off site to smoke, when they could easily accommodate them on site, but if you take on the role of non-smoking enforcer, you should be subject to the same rules you are enforcing

NHS Tayside operates a blanket ban on smoking in hospital grounds, with exceptions made for e-cigarettes outdoors. The service took the radical step of closing off its “fresh air” garden at Ninewells due to complaints about people sparking up. The space is immediately outside the front door.

Later this year, a new law will make it illegal to smoke within 15 metres of a hospital in Scotland, with offenders liable for on-the-spot fines if caught.

Complete lunacy. Just give people a spot where they can have a fag in peace

*Assuming the story is correct