Where are your papers? No not Rizlas - Your other papers!

[igm1 10]

Even though I don't smoke, I am completely against this

[Longcol 598]

Bonkers, and totally unworkable - or a we going to have a spy in every newsagents all day long?

[Savannah2 10]

I don't smoke, never have done and never will - but this idea is ludicrous.:loopy:

[Mathom 10]

Yeah, like this is a runner! Cut out all that lovely tobacco duty at one fell stroke because you'll not only get people giving up or refused a licence but the already big illegal duty free market will mushroom! Oh, and the market in illegal licences will provide yet another business opportunity for criminals. And the red tape will be immense - plus watch taxes skyrocket as we have to pay for yet more police to deal with it, and shell out more Legal Aid to pay solicitors to defend people.

 

Plus you can always grow your own. Tobacco plants grow like mad in this climate and it's cheap as chips to cure it, just knock together a box to smoke it in out of polystyrene.

 

Mind, that's what civil servants are for, to rip to pieces the stupid rubbish dreamt up by the Oxbridge grads in the thinktanks. Someone will already be putting together figures on why it's too expensive.

[SimpyTimpy 10]

I smoke, and I actually think it's not such a bad idea.

 

It would limit the amount of new smokers, the sale of tabacco to underage persons would be limited and it might go a long way in making people stop smoking.

 

Putting a £10 price on it would mean only those serious would apply.

 

Although it has it's obvious cons, it's not the worst idea in the world.

[ragtag 10]

Health England? Never heard of it. Sounds like one of the numerous fat cat quangos whose chairman, Professor Julian Le Grand (never heard of him either) occasionally feels the need to justify his job. Bereft of any innovative ideas on how to do this, he doodles on his pad until his unimaginative mind is forced to settle on the usual victim - the good old, the jolly old smokers.

[cgksheff 44]

Don't Panic!

 

This is a group which meets three times a year:

 

http://www.healthengland.org/health_england_terms_of_reference.htm

 

... it is a bit worrying when you see the membership list though. Surely people in those postions should have more sense?

 

I still admire Simon Clark of 'Forest' ..... he has served them well for many years now ... and is still a non-smoker!

[Fareast 10]

I get the ex-pats Weekly Telegraph to keep up with what's happening in Old Blighty [ or perhaps ' Old Blight ' might be more appropriate ? ]. As I read it I often wonder : Has Britain finally gone bonkers ? Or are those who dream up the rules only pretending to be bonkers in order to screw a bit more money out of people ?

 

Or has a friend been sending me a fake Weekly Telegraph as a long-running joke ?

 

I suppose it's a bit obvious to talk about ' lunatics ' and 'asylums ' but those are the two words that keep coming to mind.

[Fareast 10]

p.s. ' Julian Le Grande ' is obviously a pseudonym for Ken Dodd.

[cgksheff 44]

'Freeasty',

 

Far better to do what I used to do .... get both the Weekly Telegraph and the Weekly Grauniad ... in order to get a slightly more balanced view.

It also provides a better compass to see which of the two gets confiscated by the authorities.

 

Totally irrelevant anecdote: ... Playboy magazines ordered from the same source would come through untouched via malaysia/singapore but would have pages ripped out via queensland!

[fridgeman 10]

so our bullying government are considering introducing a £10 smoking license for all smokers, what about one for anyone purchasing alcohol or anything else our peers don't like us enjoying, whats the £10 going to be used for? they won't be spending it on cleansing services, i mean look at all the rubbish/litter around since the smoking ban (something else to blame the poor old smoker on) the litter on our streets has increasd by 45% since the smoking ban, yuo have only to walk past a pub and see all the tab ends, who cleans these up then, i know employ more cleaners with the £10 permit.

[HotPhil 10]

Good to see this government dreaming up more unenforcable, ill-thought out, impractical, laughable legislation to spend their time debating in parliament.... Never mind the real issues facing this country, let's invent another whole administrative department to process some silly law. Nuts.