| Reform wish to repeal the smoking ban! 21:15 - Mar 23 with 720 views | BlacknGoldnBlue |
Is that really a vote-winner? |  |
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| Reform wish to repeal the smoking ban! on 21:16 - Mar 23 with 707 views | Herbivore |
I imagine they're getting donations from the tobacco industry. |  |
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| Reform wish to repeal the smoking ban! on 21:18 - Mar 23 with 686 views | MattinLondon |
Do they really?
Most pubs probably won’t allow smoking on their premises - even if that law were to be repealed. |  | | |
| Reform wish to repeal the smoking ban! on 21:28 - Mar 23 with 640 views | BlacknGoldnBlue |
| Reform wish to repeal the smoking ban! on 21:18 - Mar 23 by MattinLondon |
Do they really?
Most pubs probably won’t allow smoking on their premises - even if that law were to be repealed. |
The Article by Nige in Telegraph
Bad laws? We have certainly had a few. Parliament in all its wisdom has certainly come up with some stinkers: the Dangerous Dogs Act, which led to lawyers arguing over the length of some contested breed’s legs; the Window Tax, which certainly plunged the nation into gloom (don’t tell Rachel Reeves); the Pasty Tax, which happily went straight in the bin; and a 19th-century ban, never enacted, stopping women eating chocolate on a bus.
Speaking of bans, now they all have competition. Nearing completion in Parliament is the “generational smoking ban”. This one will take some beating, mainly because a millisecond’s thought will conclude that it is both unjust and utterly unworkable.
It is the brainchild of our unlamented previous prime minister Rishi Sunak. Desperate to pad out his 2024 manifesto, he dreamt up the idea of a rolling ban on the sale of tobacco. Not an outright ban – which would have caused uproar – but a creeping prohibition that meant anyone born after 2008 would be unable to buy cigarettes legally.
At the time, it did not cause much of a stir. Partly because in 2023 it applied only to 15-year-olds (who cannot buy tobacco anyway) and partly because no one thought that Rishi was going to win the 2024 election.
It should have been stubbed out then, but with his uncanny political touch Keir Starmer picked up Rishi’s discarded fag-end. Along came the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, and buried inside it was the wretched generational ban. Sunak also wanted to scrap A-Levels, but his successor rightly decided he had enough on his plate without also further wrecking the education system.
Ask yourself this. How is the ban meant to work? Ten years from now, a 27-year-old will not be legally able to buy cigarettes, but a 28-year-old will be able to. A decade later 37-year-olds will not be deemed old enough to smoke, but 38-year-olds will be free to do so. And so forth.
The onus will be on the poor shopkeeper to identify those old enough to make a legal purchase. If he fails to carry out his duty as some kind of health policeman, he will be fined £200. How will he ensure that his customers are entitled to make a purchase?
The ‘generational smoking ban’ is the brainchild of our unlamented previous prime minister Rishi Sunak Credit: Stefan Rousseau/Pool
The idea is plainly idiotic. Shopkeepers have enough to do, not least with the epidemic of shoplifting on our high streets. Ensuring that goods are not whipped off the shelves without payment is enough to keep any shopkeeper busy – especially with the police turning a blind eye to thieves. Maybe the much-debated – and much-disliked – plan for digital ID cards is meant to help with enforcement. But if so, the Government has not said.
The public is well ahead of the Prime Minister in spotting the glaring flaws in this piece of pious grandstanding that is masquerading as legislation. Polling carried out for The Freedom Association found that, of those expressing a view, a majority thought that the ban was “unworkable” and should be scrapped.
That was what happened in New Zealand, the only country to seek to introduce a generational smoking ban under its uber-woke previous prime minister Jacinda Ardern. It didn’t last five minutes. After Ardern stepped down and her party lost the upcoming election, the new government immediately binned the ban.
Beyond workability, there are other serious problems with the ban. It will undeniably fuel the illicit trade in cigarettes, already big business for the criminal underworld. 37-year-olds banned from legal purchases will soon find that black-market tobacco is freely available – at a fraction of the cost of the regulated market.
Gangs are already running riot in countries such as Australia where the price of a packet of legal cigarettes (around £30) is just about the highest in the world and almost twice the price of the UK (where it is already steep by European standards). Stores have been hit by a wave of some 250 fire-bombings across the country and lives have been lost in this Chicago-style turf war among the bootleggers.
Tobacco revenue in the UK is already on a downward path despite only a modest decline in the numbers of smokers – tumbling from £10.4bn in 2021 to £8.4bn last year.
Australia is faring even worse amid a booming black market. Federal tobacco excise receipts have fallen sharply, from a peak of £13bn in 2019-2020 to an expected £5.6bn in the current financial year. According to the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, the illegal tobacco market now accounts for approximately one in five tobacco sales, costing the government an estimated £2.5bn in lost excise taxes in 2023-2024.
But there are deeper philosophical issues at play here. Britain was once held to be a beacon of freedom in the world. Now, as I observed in the Commons, the puritanical spirit of Oliver Cromwell again stalks the land. Our bossy, ruling elite’s default response to something is moving to ban it.
People who speak out against the woke orthodoxy infecting public and now private institutions can expect to have their collars felt. Minority pursuits, such as trail hunting, will be consigned to the history books and anyone who seems to be having fun in a way not approved of by the high priests of the progressive cathedral turns into a target.
I cannot promise that a future Reform government will immediately sweep all this dreary meddling into the gutter where it belongs. But I can promise that the generational smoking ban will not last long if Reform gets the chance to start rebuilding our mismanaged country.
There are other far more effective and civilised ways to ensure that young people do not take up vaping and smoking, and so protect their health for decades to come. As for those like me, known to enjoy a pint and a cigarette, we have been told the risks and we are prepared to take our chances. | |
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| Reform wish to repeal the smoking ban! on 22:25 - Mar 23 with 487 views | StokieBlue |
Bonkers but I'm sure some envelopes were exchanged.
Given the wealth of scientific evidence on passive smoker inhalation there is no way any premises would open themselves up to possibly legal reprisals from customers.
It's straight out of the Trump playbook, say something that some will believe and want but most will dismiss and ignore and get those extra few voters.
SB |  |
| Avatar - M101 - Pinwheel Galaxy |
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| Reform wish to repeal the smoking ban! on 22:54 - Mar 23 with 402 views | Churchman |
AI says a pack of 20 cigarettes is between £13.50 and £19. Phew! Much cheaper back in the day. Marlboro or Rothmans were my choice. I enjoyed it too. Nothing more relaxing than a pint and a fag.
Go to the cinema and they had it sorted! One side for smokers one for non-smokers. I suppose they thought smoke didn’t travel.
The evening after I passed my driving test, I took my wreck of a car out on my own. Warm evening, window down, cigarette lit as I drove along. What could be cooler? Shame I dropped it in my lap. Yelps, shouts a swerve or two and a burn mark on the jeans told me it was a stupid idea.
As dopey ideas go it’s a bit like repealing smoking bans. If it wasn’t for the tax raised all smoking would have been got rid of years ago.
Those cretins will be supporting fox hunting, bear baiting and cock fighting next. |  | | |
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