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Smoking Ban

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Buenchico | 05:37 Wed 15th Oct 2014 | News
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Somebody's going to start the discussion, so as might as well be me!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-29623851

I'm happy to support the idea but it's not something that I feel strongly enough about to join public demonstrations or write to my MP. Also, I'd prefer it to come about through national legislation, rather than leaving smokers to check individual rules for each park or public space that they visit.

Your views, please!
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Don't give 'them' too much power. Tomorrow they'll be gunning for you. Any Edinburgers with us, I believe they've had something similar for years.
I have had to light up a ciggie before I responded. This is pathetic. If the government wish to stop smoking, all they have to do is to pass a law declaring tobacco an illegal substance. Will they do that? Will they hell, as long as they can claw in the outrageous level of taxation.
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A quick bit of googling doesn't bring up anything about such a ban in Edinburgh, Svejk. (New York seems to have taken the lead three years ago).
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I think that I can take that as a 'No' then, BAV?
;-)
BAV has a point

[ not a good point as it hasnt been followed by a hall-mark flood of gormless comments ]

the tax on alcohol and tobacco ( £60bn ) used to finance the NHS - I am not sure what the figures are now. aLSO shifting the consumer practice to lets say... sport running shoes or knitting which is taxed much less means that the tax take goes down. Ciggies are 95 % tax or do I jest ?
You do not jest. It would be far more intellecually honest of the government to ban tobacco and shift the burden of taxation to muesli munchers, lentil crunchers, beards and sandals.
BAV has a point indeed, a very good point.

Happy to take the taxes but not to allow the use? can't have it both ways. Sorry if that's gormless Peter but its not clear which way you swing.
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>>>Ciggies are 95 % tax or do I jest ?

You jest.

20 B&H Silver cost £8.07 at Asda. The first part of the duty (16.5% of the retail price) comes to £1.33. The second part (£184.10 per 1000 cigs) comes to £3.68. The VAT is £1.35.

So the Exchequer gets £6.36, which is 79% of the retail price.
I'm sure TTT will be in later to say those figures are wrong.

Another step in the right direction!
As usual, Chico is right. He's done the maths and we only pay 79% in tax rather than 95%. So that's all right then!
And smokers die younger. My dad worked all the time he was in England and never got to drawar his state pension. He was only treated with pain relief for his illness.
As an ex-smoker, I would say ban them in public places - nothing worse than coming out od a shop into clouds of fag smoke produced by folk standing right by the door. However, having said that, smoking is an individual choice and while the Govt is getting plenty of dosh in from tax then it will not ban it totally
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Well it seems that there's a bit of support here for the idea, anyway.

Thanks for all posts so far (both for & against). More welcome!
This lot is against any more anti-smoking rules...surprise, surprise !

http://www.forestonline.org/

Each time our Governments have beefed up the anti-smoking rules, Forest pops up and speaks against. Hardly surprising as this is what they are paid to do, by the tobacco companies. Tobacco companies make huge profits by killing and maiming their own customers, and they rely on recruiting new smokers every year, most of them children.....A cynical trade if ever there was one.

It isn't so long ago that smoking was banned in Pubs, cafes, etc and we were all told that the sky would fall in. Well it hasn't and we can now all enjoy a drink or a meal without the stink of fags and all those over-flowing ashtrays and tables covered by a film of ash. Who would seriously make a case for going back to those days ?

We can only go forward and I support the action that is now proposed 100%.

Where is my mate TTT on this issue !
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Thanks for your post, Mikey.
(Ruddy 'ell! We've finally agreed upon something!)

Can I take it that, like me, you'd prefer to see national legislation, rather than the current piecemeal proposals?
You always hear of the loss of jobs ,the hardships its gonna bring when fag makers closed down factories .if the fag smoking population lowers what do they expect ..open more factories .I smoked and enjoyed fags for 30 odd years I will not put smokers ,the happiest days of my life were as a smoker .
Of course Mikey will be too young to remember the days when Harold Wilson and Tony Benn puffed merrily away at their pipes when giving interviews in the TV studios.
the happiest days of my life were as a smoker .



'It's the only pleasure I get'
Buenchico...we probably agree on lots of things you know...we must both try harder !

National agreement would be nice, although now that Britain has so much devolution of different kinds, its not as easy to achieve as it used to be. The smoking in public places legislation was introduced first in Scotland, then here in Wales, and eventually in England ( not sure about NI ) As long as it is done, I don't really care how.

Blackadder...I most certainly do remember Harold and Tony with their pipes, but I fail to see how it is germane to this discussion.

Like most people of my class and age, I am an ex-smoker. I started as most working-class boys did, at about 14-15, by copying my elders and betters, as most adults that I came into contact with smoked in the 50's and 60's. We had a Woodwork teacher, who I worshiped, that smoked and taught us how to use a plane and a chisel at the same time ! My Physics teacher was also the same and would send one of the boys out during lessons, to get a new pack of pipe tobacco from his parked Rover. I gave up smoking when I was 25 and if I hadn't have done, I would be one of those poor people that you see, in the Newsagents every morning, spending the thick end of £20 a day on fags. At the age of 61, I actually doubt that I would still be alive now, if I hadn't quit.

What I want to see is that children are not exposed to cigarettes and smoking any more than is necessary. I want a generation of children to grow up differently to what I was used to, in that they are not taught to smoke, overtly or covertly, by adults that they look up to and respect. A good example is everything to young kids growing up.

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