Bollocks about cigs

Could this article about the right of the poor to enjoy a cigarette be any more patronising?

“…my house is within easy drive–by–shooting distance of several large estates. Each day, vastly overweight teen–agers from the local comprehensive waddle past my gate, shedding crisp packets as they go. In the afternoons, girls who ought to be sitting their GCSEs perambulate past with their progeny, sharing fags as they head for the local one o’ clock club. Every middle–class bone in my body shudders in horror; I am hardwired to disapprove.

I have no right, of course. What do I know about their circumstances, who am I to judge them? But the truth is, they upset me. Not so much because of my strong social conscience; more because they destabilise my middle–class certainties, impinge on my own calorie–controlled, organically certified idyll. In short, they spoil the view.

What I would like most of all is for everyone to be like me. To re–cycle, to eat their greens, to drive within the speed limit, to exercise regularly, to read edifying bedtime stories to their children. But I am a fool. Those kids wandering past my house no more want to be me than I want to be them. It would be the most unutterable pomposity to assume otherwise”.

Bollocks. Those kids (lame stereotype that they may be) haven’t sat down and made an informed choice to get fat, have kids young, smoke, because they reject the comfortable, healthy middle–class lifestyle. They are a product of their environment and opportunities. And this article is a snide load of crap.