Since the UK General Election in early July, there has been a marked change in the way people are using social media and the messages they are sharing.

Don’t get me wrong. The questions over social media and the damage that its misuse and mismanagement has and continues to do is long held and there is much to be resolved.

It just seems to be the case that many if not all of what seemed to be ‘credible’ speakers across the political spectrum, have now got completely wrapped up in their own rhetoric and become sucked down by one or other of the many rabbit holes that seem to be giving so many some weird form of sanctuary whilst the world seems to be suffering from a madness storm.

The point is illustrated uncomfortably by the massive onslaught that is now underway in the UK against the proposals by the quickly aging Labour Government to impose smoking bans in pub gardens and many other public areas.

Following hot on the heels of the age-based smoking ban that the disastrous Sunak Conservative Government didn’t bring into being before their wipeout in July, the hypocrisy coming from the political right is as troubling as the countless ‘voices for reason’, who are now obsessively attempting to use everything the establishment does as evidence that confirms that George Orwell’s 1984 is as good as done and dusted, and is already taking over every part of life in just about every possible form.

If we look hard enough for evidence of anything, the chances are that we will find it. Not because it’s necessarily there. But because that’s the way that human nature works if you give it a green light to do so.

There is much to be concerned about by the way the establishment, the elites and the governing classes behave and how they approach the responsibilities that they no longer seem to accept they have to all others. However, the behaviour that they exhibit comes from much the same place and is founded upon their own biases, ignorance and an intoxication with power that few would be able to avoid. If they too were to suddenly find themselves in the same place.

Banning smoking in public places is not an attack on freedom. That is unless we are happy to agree that public policy should be based on the damaging belief that governance is about pandering to the minority, rather than doing what’s best for all. Or what the more sensible amongst us might recognise as being ‘The Common Good’.

The most recent figures from The Office of National Statistics tell us that 12.9% of the UK Population are smokers, which is roughly about 1 in 8 of us.

So why should those of us who do not smoke have no option but to inhale tobacco fumes, vape clouds or any kind of smoke that someone who smokes or vapes anything has chosen to discharge in any public place?

Whilst it is unquestionably a personal freedom of choice and should certainly remain so that anyone can smoke or vape if they so choose, it is also incumbent upon them not to do so in any way that compromises the freedom of others to make the alternative choice.

Like many, I enjoy a drink at a pub. And in the summer months like nothing more than to sit outside and enjoy the British Summer as I do so. If and when it decides to turn up.

However, what I don’t enjoy – also like so many others, is having that experience spoiled by anyone smoking or vaping, who clearly believes that simply being outside is the only thing they need to consider where the impact of their actions is concerned.

Dreadful as the Labour Government might be in so many respects, this is one rule that will probably have a lot more support than many would believe. Rather perversely, because once again, it’s the silent majority that are otherwise being forced to suffer because a noisy minority have no awareness of the impact of choices which are regrettably, all about them.