Presumably invoking the spirit of Gordon Brown and that ‘unprecedented times call for unprecedented measures', it was heartening to read that 24-year-old mother of three Kelly Marie Pocock from Merthyr Vale was doing her bit to support our beleaguered tobacco industry, thereby helping protect British jobs.
What made this particular tale all the more gratifying is that it emerged on the same day that a report from the Office of National Statistics showed that much like car manufacturing, smoking levels were at an all time low.
However Pocock found her interventionist attempt at reversing this smoking slump landed her at Merthyr Crown Court after one of her ‘friends' filmed footage of Pocock's three-year-old son chugging away on a cigarette on her mobile phone, and then handed the footage to social services.
As reported in the newspapers, the court heard that the boy looked like a seasoned smoker such was his skill with cheroot and lighter, thereby showing that Pocock had greater foresight than either Brown or Alistair Darling in predicting the collapse of UK plc.
Common sense prevailed and Pocock was spared a custodial sentence; personally I think she deserves a place on the front bench.
