Another day, another assault on smokers. Apparently the Government is going to try and introduce a ban on tobacco being on display in shops putting it under the counter.
How exactly you're supposed to know who sells cigarettes I;m not sure, and what about Duty Free stores? Sometimes, people want to browse. Will you have to ask for a brochure of the products and made to feel like a pariah for wanting to have control over your own action?
This anti-smoking fascism that is going on nowadays is starting to seriously annoy me.
23 comments:
I took up smoking in 1997 after a gap of fifteen or more years just to spite the Smokists. It backfired on me in 2002 when I had a heart attack!
I haven't smoked since.
What genuinely interests me is the psychology of the Smokists. It seems such an extreme prejudice.
Having said that, I have to confess to being rabidly anti mobile phone use in public. Steam comes out of my ears when I hear the "I'm on the train" mantra. At these times I seem to share the intensity of the Smokists rage.
I'm really curious about where this all comes from. Are perhaps my and the Smokists' rage made of the same stuff? If so, what is it?
I smoke - and I pay alot of tax to be able smoke. What I don't understand is if the government bans smoking in public places, places the goods under the counter, insists that it is for our own good - then why not just make selling tobacco illegal?
It's OK to kill us 'under the counter' yet still taking our tax money?
Either we can smoke or we can't.
Will you soon need a passport to enter the off license?
Whats the betting the legislation allows them to ban/remove other stuff just like the NR nationalization bill did.They are not even trying to hide this shit now.
It'll soon be easier to buy porn than cigarettes.
The absolute hypocrisy of this is that the government is using taxpayers money to erect a smokers shelter at the rear of number 10 following the ban on smoking in the work place.
Isn't this just going to lead to a huge drop in the tax we recieve from tobacco sales? If people can't get it legally in an easy way, they will just all go to smuggled stocks. Once again micro-mangement by predudice scores an own goal....
My local convenience shop tells me that parents buy cigarettes (and booze) for their kids as well as for themselves. What difference is nanny going to make in these situations? Does the 'wicked witch' want to kill off all the small shops as well!!
Like many of the other anti-smoking measures, this won't actually reduce the incidence of smoking, but it will reduce competition among manufacturers. It will therefore harm the consumer.
It will be a rare old inconvenience for anyone who smokes any product even remotely out of the mainstream, and a distinct irritation for tobacconists everywhere, when faced with requests for 'do you have product X?'
What is it with new Labour Woman that makes her so irritating?
I give you;
Dawn Primolo
Patricia Hewitt
Yvette Cooper
Tessa Jowell
Ruth Kelly
If we all stop smoking and drinking then government revenues would go down, but we’ll then be living and claiming pensions for longer so the expenditure will go up. Does anyone share my feeling that they haven’t really thought this through properly?
Come on now NuLabour Women - nany knows best
Canvas said: Will you soon need a passport to enter the off license?
It seems entirely plausible that one of the ways the government will try to push ID cards is by requiring them to be shown before purchases of alcohol or tobacco.
Like all anti-smoking legislation, this is a try-out to see what they can get away with. They've moved on to drinking in the same way. What's next? My guess is meat-eating.
"Sometimes, people want to browse."
Not a smoker myself, but all the people I know smoke a preferred brand. Does anyone really browse....?
I didn't know you were a fellow smoker Canvas.
I saw Red Dawn coming out with this claptrap. I didn't think it was possible to hate her more, but magically it is!
This is going to lead to some weird guessing games with shop staff as to what is hidden 'under the counter'.
I'd like to point out to Dawn 'fucking National Socialist hell-bitch' Primarolo that alcohol is basically a poison so we should hide that as well, and fatty foods, hide them and cars they sometimes kill people, trains, planes, electrical goods, knives they're potentially bad.
Or we could just hide Dawn Primarolo, in a box...under ground.
(Dear GCHQ etc, this isn't really an encitement to violence. Red Dawn should not be killed, but poked with sticks repeatedly! God is great.....transmission ends..)
Perhaps a simple sign will do the trick. Alternatively, people could just ask. A bit of a non-problem really.
They'll ban doughnuts from being on view next.
The daily mash have this story /nailed/ today! So funny I nearly coughed up a lung!
http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/health/smokers-banned-from-looking-at-cigarettes-while-smoking-20080325818/
Zorro
In Germany you already have to use an EU ID card to buy cigarettes,
http://englandexpects.blogspot.com/2007/03/id-cards-will-only-be-used-to-protect.html
No problem to me, I live in Kent and buy all my cigarettes in France and have done for years. Stopped going to the pub in winter when the banned smoking, the whole atmosphere has changed. Still can't see why we can't have smoking or no smoking pubs and what business it is of the government to deny private businesses and clubs their right to allow the use of a legal product. Don't believe all this crap about passive smoking either. I grew up when almost everyone smoked everywhere, cinemas, theatres, shops even hospitals and we are the longest lived generation ever. Also rarely heard of asthma, I knew just one child who had it, now seems to be everywhere. I don't mind some restrictions like restaurants and theatres etc. but I do object to pubs and open train station platforms, though I believe this is a railway bylaw rather than the government. I would not encourage anyone to start smoking and neither of my children do but I have smoked for 50 years and am perfectly healthy and I just want to be left alone and not treated like a criminal. I did stop once, just to see if I could, I gained 2 stone in weight in three months and never felt so ill in my life so what was worse smoking or overweight! no contest for me. Either have the courage to ban cigarettes totally or leave us in peace. I note they have started on alcohol now and food, we tried to warn you these people don't know when to stop. I will vote for anyone who modifies these laws and just leaves us alone for a while!
Gawain Towler, please stop spreading misinformation about countries you obviously know very little about. In Germany cigarette vending machines in streets, public places etc. (not in pubs, hotels and the like) require an age identification; you insert your EC credit card which tells the machine that the cardholder is of "smoking age". If you buy cigarettes in a shop and look old enough, no one will ask you for an ID. The procedure is just like buying alcoholic beverages: if you look very young, the personnel may ask you for proving that you're old enough. That is a far cry from what you, Gawain Towler, claim to be the fact.
Hartwig
If this really stupid law comes into force then Government revenue will drop even more and Eurotunnel may even go into the black. As casual smokers (and drinkers) my wife and I travel to France and Belgium every 4 months or so for a long weekend where we stock up on cigs, spirits and wine for the next 4 months. Every time we open a pack of cigs or bottle of wine we put half the price into a jar so that the trips become, if effect, more or less slef funding. When the corner shops and off-licences close down through lack of custom, you will only have your Member of Parliament (who, by the way, will be able to openly buy THEIR cigs from the shops in the Houses of Commons and Lords) to blame. Democracy is really great isn't it?
Tunnelvision
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