From The Metro:
Cigarette vending machines could soon be a thing of the past after MPs agreed to ban them. The House of Lords will now consider whether there should be an outright ban on the machines, after an amendment to the Health Bill by Labour's Ian McCartney was passed by the Commons on Monday night. MPs also voted to bar the display of cigarettes in shops (1), despite strong opposition to the Government's proposals from the Tories.
Former Cabinet minister Mr McCartney said the approval of his vending machines ban proposal "was going to change history" (2). Condemning the devices as an "outrageous loophole in our country's safeguards" to prevent thousands of children suffering illness and premature death (3), he protested that tobacco was still "the only product in Britain that can be sold legally, which routinely kills and injures its customers" (UPDATE). Mr McCartney's amendment was passed without a vote, and Health Secretary Andy Burnham said the Government would not oppose the measure in the Lords.
Anti-smoking campaigners (4) welcomed the move. Deborah Arnott, chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), said: "Stopping tobacco sales from vending machines has made a strong Bill even stronger. We wouldn't tolerate other age-restricted products such as alcohol or knives being sold in this way. This prohibition means that a lethal and addictive product will no longer be easily accessible to children."
Harpal Kumar, Cancer Research UK's (5) chief executive, added: "We are delighted that MPs have voted to protect young people from tobacco marketing. Putting tobacco out of sight in shops and removing cigarette vending machines (6) will help reduce the number of young people taking up a lethal addiction: Tobacco kills half of all long term users.(7)"
The Tories expressed concern over proposals for a ban on the display of cigarettes, particularly during the recession when shops could suffer from a lack of business.
(1) Oh, they just snuck that in, did they? Shouldn't that be the headline, or had we already resigned ourselves to this happening?
(2) Hubris. Words fail.
(3) "Thousands of children"? How many children die of smoking-related diseases every year? Approximately "none", I would guess.
(4) Fakecharity
(5) Another borderline fakecharity
(6) I thought we only had cigarettes machines in pubs, usually within sight of the bar. How many children use them to buy cigarettes?
(7) Oh, it's "half" now, is it? Could they please make up their minds whether it's a third, a half or nearly all (see footnotes 4 and 5 here). In Scotland they reckon it's all of them.
UPDATE: as CFF points out, he missed off a few things: "Cars, peanuts, alcohol .. .. oh hang on, they're trying to control most of those things too .. .." And knives, aspirin, glue, strawberries, electrical parts, white asbestos (OK, that's not particularly harmful), and presumably in the near future bicycles, rope, mobile phones for minors etc.
Muh, Far Right
36 minutes ago
9 comments:
We are living in a society where ordinary people and businesses are always the target. While residents are being fined 1000 quid for putting the wrong rubbish in bins on the wrong day in Sunderland and are being labelled "environmental offenders", the courts are freeing rapists, muggers, thieves and foreign criminals who have sentences of less than a year to serve.
At the same time that the innocent are being penalised over smoking because of the "childreen" David Berry 61, from Hartlepool walked free from court despite amassing more than 500 images of child pornography. The judge imposed a community order for his crimes....
Our justice system is nothing but an instrument of oppression and you are more likely to be arrested for being insufficiently enthusiastic about cultural diversity or a racist thought crime than assault.
Thank you for this post Mark, it says it all really. I tried to watch the debate on iplayer last night but my bandwith kept failing. I knew people like you and Dick P would write a stronger piece than I ever could.
There was a time when I thought NuLabour were courting businesses and had moved away from being anti capitalist but now I find out that they want to obliterate some LEGAL businesses from the face of the map. I must have been mad to think that Leibor was a friend to the working classes also.
They are utter cunts and I for one can't wait to see the back of them...FOREVER!
I know it's all hubristic, but getting rid of them isn't that bad an idea IMO. It was always the easy way for me to get them when I was underage.
That said, the government still won't deal seriously with retailers who sell cigarettes and alcohol to kids. A few slaps on wrists, a few trivial fines. I suspect most teenagers already know where to get them...
Great minds think alike and all that.. .. .. .. except I read the BBC coverage.
Ian McCartney's comment that tobacco was still "the only product in Britain that can be sold legally, which routinely kills and injures its customers" is totally disingenuous. Cars, peanuts, alcohol .. .. oh hang on, they're trying to control most of those things too .. ..
The state should only regulate how we treat each other and only up to a point. How we treat ourselves is our own affair.
Otherwise there is no end to it.
Do these interfering busybodies just not understand reverse psychology?
I'm going to ask the body corporate at our place if we can install some cigarette machines.
Sue, yes, that's another theory of mine. In an authoritarian state, the severity of the punishment is inversely proportional to the offence.
TBY, it's depressing to think that the Tories are pushing the more libertarian line.
OC, did you go into pubs to use a machine, or were they still on street corners?
CFF, good point, I have updated.
EV, exactly.
HC, I think they do understand reverse psychology. That's the crowning success of e.g. The War On Drugs - they know from experience that it won't "work" (as in "it won't achieve its stated aims") but that gives them an excuse to up the ante and become even more illiberal ad infinitum.
JH, do you still work at a school?
HC.
According to the BBC "17,000 children a year are hospitalised because of passive snoking" http://a-place-to-stand.blogspot.com/2007/06/17000-children-year-in-hospital-because.html
The truth is that this is the figure for all childhood asthma - something which has been increasing as smoking has decreased & is probably actually caused by wrapping kids in cotton wool & thus not triggering their immune systems.
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