Time to make YOUR views known
Tuesday, March 25, 2008 Just when my back is turned (we were in the Peak District, beyond the reach of a decent mobile phone signal) Health minister Dawn Primarolo announces proposals for tighter controls on the sale of tobacco, including bans on above the counter cigarette displays and cigarette vending machines in pubs and restaurants. Fortunately my colleague Neil Rafferty was able to handle the majority of media enquiries, including a request from The Sun for THIS op-ed piece.
A so-called "public consultation" will begin in May. I think we all know just what a sham these consultations are. In most cases the government has already decided what it intends to do. The "consultation" is merely a tool that helps rubber stamp the policy.
If you are opposed to further restrictions on the sale of tobacco, you must make your views known NOW. Write to your MP - especially if he/she is in a marginal constituency - and emphasise that the government's anti-smoking policies have become a serious election issue that will influence the way you vote. Ask his position on the issue and be sure to request a written reply.
Please send a copy of all correspondence to Forest, Sheraton House, Castle Park, Cambridge CB3 0AX.
Reader Comments (8)
Just 7,500 smoking voters can wipe out Labour's Commons majority
I have just added the following article to my website. Please check it out on http://www.thesmokermagazine.co.uk/ and follow link
There are just 5 short weeks to go to get our message accross.
Gordon Brown has started his campaign, we need to start ours, NOW!
Once the red mist had cleared after reading this new piece of fascist legislation an humorous image formed in my mind. It was of the sales counter of a traditional tobacconist having to move just outside the front door to accommodate all their stock in the soon-to-be required fashion.
Dr Robert West is a liar when he says there is no safe level of tobacco smoke - either that, or he should be struck of for being scientifically incompetent.
I'll hold my breath waiting for him to sue me for calling him a liar because he knows he is one and I can also prove it. So c'mon Robert, let's see you in court!
Blad
Re post 3. I agree and I think this is what is needed for these lies to be exposed. Their day in court will come because as we all know, the truth always comes out in the end, it's just we're stuck in the cross-fire at the moment
Off topic for this thread but the latest lunacy in Wales is to ban hospital vending machines from selling chocolate, crisps and other 'unhealthy' snacks.
Take a look at the svelte Welsh Health Minister - you couldn't make it up!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7311326.stm
I can't think of a better way to make tobacco any more attractive than this. What an inspired idea. Under the counter stuff! The greatest campaign to encourage children to smoke ever. How exciting! Who's gonna be the coolist dude in the class!
Smoking has never been so cool, and they're about to make it ICE!
This would be the same Dawn Primarolo who once tried to have "Gentlemens Magazines" banned from the top shelf and stashed under the counter in the same shops? It must be getting pretty crowded under that counter.
When she was an MP in Bristol in the early 90s she decided, off her own back, that it would be far better for everyone that girlie mags should be bagged and hidden. My son was pre-school at the time and he couldn't actually see anything at that height and he was tall for his age! The woman needs to be given her own country to run, some kind of fascistic government and free rein to do whatever she wants. It's this kind of thinking that gets the human race a bad name.
What an amazing country we live in.
Hide all sinful temptations from us lest we stray from the path of righteousness...
...meanwhile, let people on terrorist charges out of prison early because the prisons are too overcrowded.
If the level of incompetence weren't so horrifying, the government would be a bloody laughing stock.