A huge step forward?

[Loosehead]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6196910 .stm

well it's Friday someone had to ask the question!

[OBonio]

Looking forward to it myself. Will keep me out of the pub too! Double whammy. Then GB can tax me more because I'll have more money.... good thinking Neu Labor.

[anotheoldgit]

If the Goverment is so concerned about our health, then why haven't tobacco products been withdrawn from the shelves overnight and banned, just like other dangerous consumer products are? we all know the answers to this one don't we?
Look bigmalc not a mention of foreigners, unless of course you can accuse me of trying to make all the dark skinned workers in the tobacco fields of Viginia redundant.

[WaldoMcFroog]

It creates a distubance in the Force just having to type it, but the Git is right in what he says in his first paragraph.

[Loosehead]

Ignoring the taxation issue for a minute, I think history has shown that prohibition does not work. Therefore the next best thing is being attempted, ie get the smelly gits outside, let the rest of us be comfortable and collect the tax from the sad addicts anyway! One of the very few things new Labour have done right!

[crete]

must be great being perfect loosehead. how would you feel if alcohol was banned outside your own home ?

[NH]

Wooooooooooooooooooohoooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Loosehead]

Well Crete, I would probably not like it but there is one very big difference, when I'm having a pint I don't go around pouring my drink down your throat by force do I. Alcohol has other problems, Clarion will no doubt be along soon, but one problem it doesn't have is passive drinking! Who says I'm perfect? I just have a little bit of an aversion to filtering 100's of poisonous chemicals through my lungs when I would rather not! Don't get me started on the smell, yuck do smokers have any idea what they smell like?

[crete]

do drinkers have any idea how they smell?

[Loosehead]

yeah I'm sure we whiff a bit, not in your league old chap!

[crete]

dont make assumption re my age or gender or my tobacco habit,

[Loosehead]

so aside from the merits of the wffiness of smokers and drinkers, can I take your silence on the other points as assent?

[crete]

no loosehead you can take my silence as, im bored with the question.

[Carby]

CRETE you smell and no one likes to around you!! Get the message.

[jump79]

Well it sounds like a great idea (about time too) as it'll help minimize health problems related to passive smoking... and it's not really infringing on smoker's rights(IMO), they are still allowed to smoke.....just not in public spaces where non-smokers and children are put at risk due to their habit/addiction. It makes smoking more inconvenient so many smokers may end up quitting in the long run (a good thing) .... so overall, I don't see the downside to this.

[mimififi]

how can the cost of implementing the ban cost �50M? Surely little signs can't cost that much???? If they like, they can pay me �2M and I'll print out as many little signs as they need and laminate them all by hand.

Weirder and weirder!

[crete]

carby are you old enough to be on this site.?

[bigmalc]

Your right anotheoldgit. I agree with you on that one. And not even I could blame you for tabacco redundancies! (unless of course you have just quit smoking!) ;-)

Personally I don't see what all the fuss is about. It's been banned in Scotland since March and it has had little or no effect upon whether people go to the pub or not. If anything the pub and restaurant that I work in have been busier than usual this year. The atmosphere is so much better and your eyes don't sting when it's late at night.

[Le Chat]

As a non smoker, I am glad of the ban. What I do hate though, is on a night out at a restaurant with both smokers and non smokers, between courses, the smokers all huddled outside the restaurant door to smoke, leaving me sitting with empty chairs infront and alongside me. I would rather they stayed sociable and could smoke, than to just up and out. How can smoking outside in the pouring rain be pleasant?
They did stink when they came in too!!
My pet hate though, is doing electrolysis (very close work) to a smoker, who has attempted to "mask" the smell by sucking a mint! To all you smokers out there ... it is much worse than just clingy, stale smoke fumes!

[anotheoldgit]

Been a none smoker for years, but I do defend the right of smokers to freely use a substance that is not illegal.

I'm fed up of the state hypocritically banning the free use of tobacco products, which they refuse to ban completely for their own money grabbing reasons.

Maybe the next thing will be for them to levy a heavy duty onto gas guzzling 4 X 4s, and other large vehicles and then restrict the use of them due to the poison fumes they belch out into the atmosphere, I'd go along with this, you know it makes sense, get the drift?

[Bazile]

Whatever vices people have, that is their problem so long as it does that impact adversely on others , and also it is not something that is not needed for the operation of society

For example , motor cars , air transport do affect the planet , but in the modern society , it is not something that we can now do without .

However , passive smoking affect others who chose not to smoke , and moreover smoking is not a requirement for society to operate .

An ex colleague of mine died , from lung cancer - ( the doctors stated it was due to smoking ) - the thing is he himself did not smoke , but he worked in an inviroment where he was in contact with other smokers

I regularly pass a college each day , where there are always a large number of teenagers standing outside smoking - I always wonder if they are aware of the health risks to themselves and others .