"MPs vote to ban cigarette machines"

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.