Chris Whitty urges MPs to ignore lobbying and pass smoking ban bill

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/16/chris-whitty-urges-mps-to-ignore-lobbying-and-pass-smoking-ban-bill?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Posted by ClassicFlavour

11 Comments

  1. Criminals are licking their lips at the prospect of a new black market opening up for cigarettes.

  2. xmBQWugdxjaA on

    I think the better option would be to just add an NHS surcharge for smokers – especially treating conditions caused by smoking, or not cover it.

    At the moment the cigarette companies are basically leeching off the NHS – able to sell cheap cigarettes abroad which get smuggled in, and then the NHS is stuck with the massive bills of treating lung cancer.

    Also wish we’d apply the same enthusiasm to solving air pollution too. Cities should start being restricted to electric vehicles only.

  3. It’s so fucking wild how tobacco use is so frowned on but then the ingestion of alcohol, which is literally poison, gets absolutely zero fucking heat.

  4. going_down_leg on

    Oh please mr government, ban more stuff! Tax everything higher. Cradle me. I’m an adult and I need you to make every decision for me.

  5. Big-Government9775 on

    This is exactly why you need multiple specialists and not just 1 type.

    He’s totally right on the medical aspect.

    Any political historian would laugh at him though.

  6. I_am_legend-ary on

    Personally I don’t think the government should be banning cigarettes.

    At a certain point adults should be allowed to decide what substances they consume.

  7. International_Can763 on

    All these highly-paid, unelected people — so-called specialists — are hell-bent on taking people’s democratic rights away. Say NO to this ban! This ban is not intended to protect children — children are already protected under current legislation if only the laws were enforced — but to make a two-tier adulthood, in which some adults will be able to smoke and some not. This is nanny-statism at its worst. How dare these people take our rights away from us like this. Further, it must be said that Sunak was never elected into office as prime minister in the first place; rather, he was foisted on the nation by the élite. So, it is a question of an unelected, undemocratic prime minister taking away the people’s democratic rights. Don’t these people realise that smoking a cigarette is the least of our worries today? These days, young people are into soft and hard drugs. London is the cocaine capital of the world! In fact, it should also be said that many western nations are busy decriminalising cannabis for recreational use, so how much sense does it make for Sunak & Co to ban smoking in the UK for young adults when Canada, many states in the US, Luxembourg, Malta, and lately Germany have made the recreational use of cannabis legal. So this I must ask myself: Which planet do these people live on?

  8. If I didn’t have to pay for your health care, I truly couldn’t give a shit what you put in your body.

    But it seems unfair that people who choose not to smoke have to subsidise the ramifications of those who do.

    But then those who smoke pay more in VAT.

    It’s all confusing and requires a much deeper conversation about a social contract.

  9. When I had stuff in a warehouse lockup many years ago. A large truck turned up with loads of guys waiting for it. As I drove through the security barrier a load of other guys poured in from the street. ( Police) Turns out I was in the middle of a major black market cigarette bust. They even arrested me. I had to show them my lock up before they would let me go. About 15 guys were in handcuffs sitting on the corridor floor. Crazy stuff. The boxes they were handling said IBM computers but inside were cigarettes.