West Ham Online

"Hot on the heels of the online safety bill, Sunak is considering bringing in a law that will make it illegal for anyone born after 2009 to buy tobaco products. This is nanny state on steroids, and must be opposed if and when a bill gets read. When i heard a couple of years ago that New Zealand were making this a law i really thought it couldnt happen here. Besides, all it will do is create a massive black market and amber leaf will become the new weed. I have'nt smoked for 6 years now but thats beside the point, and what will be next? Alcohol to be outlawed or at least limits put on how much you can buy. This is where we're heading, once we go cashless, the decision in what and how much you buy will no longer be yours to make. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/society/2023/sep/22/rishi-sunak-considers-banning-cigarettes-for-next-generation"

Love a nice cuban cigar

Smokers stink.

"Only cannabis and opium ,think pipes as old as 5000bc been found"

What did people in Europe smoke before tobacco was introduced?

"Smoking raises £8.8 billion in tax. Stewie, that's just tobacco excise duty (likely to be £10 billion for 2022/23). It excludes VAT, on the product and VAT on the excise duty. To say nothing of the PAYE/Ni paid by tobacco company employers and employees, business rates and Corporation Tax, paid by the tobacco companies. That all ads up."

"This is yet another example of this so called Tory government behaving as you’d expect a puritanical and bossy labour/libdem mob to work. I thought the Conservatives were committed to freedom of choice. I’m heartily sick of being pushed around by politicians of all hues. I made the mistake of voting for the first in ove 30 years at the last GE. I won’t make that mistake again. Fuck the lot of them. btw, yes I do sometimes smoke but it can take me a month or more to finish a pack."

Our tobacco sales ban is part of a goal to make NZ smoke free by 2025. I think the actual target for 2025 is for no more than 5% of the population smoking. It's not just stopping people born after 2009 from ever being able to buy though. There is also going to he a reduction in the number of places you can by tobacco from - from 6000 down to 600 iirc. And the tobacco products available must also be low-nicotine. We have some of the highest rates of lung cancer in the world in certain demographics (Maori women for example). 5000 people die from smoking-related illnesses in NZ every year. Why WOULDN'T you want to reduce that number?

"They’re using the word ‘banning’ but are seeing that those generations down the line will vape instead of use tobacco, but older generations will continue to be able to carry on their habit…it’s the government trying lamely to look decisive when the reality is youngsters can do a more pleasant smelling addiction that will likely cause harm instead…."

"True zeb. Thanks to my parents' bullheaded insistence on heavy smoking, they only got to enjoy their large pension for a few years before dying horrible, protrated deaths from emphysema, choking and drowning in their phlegm. Also, my sister - also a pensioner looking forward to a comfortable retirement - died in hospital last year. She had fallen and broken her hip, but due to smoking-induced emphysema, the doctors could not get her oxygen levels stable enough to do surgery on her hip and she died. I absolutely HATE the fact that smoking exists, but I'm glad it's not up to me to make decisions about banning stuff."

Also consider the amount saved in pension payments.

"Smoking raises £8.8 billion in tax... and costs £3.9 billion in treatment (£1.4 billion in social care, £2.5 billion NHS treatment). May not be big numbers in the grand scheme of things, but still a hole that would need to plugged elsewhere. Better off targeting fat cunts, to be honest."

"In the future there will be 40 year olds hanging around outside the corner shop begging 41 year olds to get them some ciggies. Middle aged people will need to prove their age to buy fags. 18 year old serving in a shop asking a 41 year old for proof of age? If you are under age now, you cannot sell fags or booze - will they change the law or will shop workers, who sell fags, have to be aging too? Its a distraction - totally impractical and as other have said, prohibition doesn't work (see war on drugs)."

I'm in just for the stopping of cigarette butt's all over the place. Can't go anywhere without seeing an ashtray load of these disgusting objects lying everywhere and the wankers that dis0ose of them thinking it's their god given right to flick them all over the place.

Colchester Sid has explained well what is really happening here…..

Sorry for you Alfs. Nightmare. Back in the day my granny was advised to smoke by her health visitor. Cancer in her 70s.

"This is fucking outrageous. Nanny state bullshit, line crossing fuckers. If someone wants to pay through the nose for cancer sticks that's their CHOICE and RIGHT. What next? Using petrol cars? Beer? Crossing the road? Using stairs while drunk? Walking in the rain? Declining to follow medical advice? Thin end of the wedge in my opinion. Right to decide for one's self is paramount."

There is absolutely nothing to gain from starting smoking. It provides no benfits to health or anything what-so-ever and the impact is only negative. So can't see a problem with this.

How many years before the true impact of vaping is uncovered? That’ll cost billions to deal with.

Disgusting habit

"As a non-smoker, I used to encourage others to smoke, telling them that they were keeping my income tax down. Back then there would people who would say/do the polar opposite of what I preferred just because it was me saying it, but even nicotine addiction trumped my obvious powers there. I would be a little happier if the government were to publish/seek a list of ""Damaging Activities"" people in the population undertake and then open a petition site where people could rank the personal preference of which ones the government should focus on. I suspect smoking may be near the top, but not number 1. What would be number 1? For me it would probably be general anti-social behaviour as it impacts most/all of society and would, therefore bring the biggest, if less media friendly and dramatic, overall benefits if properly addressed. The deliberate spreading of fear/misinformation/disinformation would, for me, also rank above smoking as ""an ill that needs curing"". Others will, naturally have their own priorities. We/they could end up with a list with 10s of thousands of entries, which would, in itself be fairly indicative of life today."

"Problem is if we allow them to ban smoking, it will see those who like to tell us what to do and how to live just move on to something else. We already have people calling for Vaping to be banned as that's a health risk too, how about Boxing, alcohol, heading the ball in football, compulsory head gear in Rugby, high levels of salt and/or sugar in foods. Of course, many of these things won't be banned right away, but they will start taxing the fuck out of any of them that they can, all in the name of discouraging people and it's a burden on the NHS etc. Anyone one agreeing smoking should be banned should be careful what they wish for! Besides what happened to personal choice in this woke and PC world we are creating..........FUCK OFF"

"Problem is if we allow them to ban smoking, it will see those who like to tell us what to do and how to live just move on to something else. We already have people calling for Vaping to be banned as that's a health risk too, how about Boxing, alcohol, heading the ball in football, compulsory head gear in Rugby, high levels of salt and/or sugar in foods. Of course, many of these things won't be banned right away, but they will start taxing the fuck out of any of them that they can, all in the name of discouraging people and it's a burden on the NHS etc. Anyone one agreeing smoking should be banned should be careful what they wish for! Besides what happened to personal choice in this woke and PC world we are creating..........FUCK OFF"

"I smoked since I was fourteen. Spent fucking tens of thousands of pounds on it. Now have COPD which I wouldn't wish on a Millwall supporter. I've been vaping as an alternative, but it exacerbates my condition so am trying to give that up too. Tobacco should just be banned, full stop. It must cost the NHS far more than the tax it brings in."

"ULEZ, 20 mph speed limits, 15 minute cities, carbon footprint limits. What a fucking nightmare! Glad I left!"

Lefties will happily fall in line and follow orders like the cucks they are