Lunatics, asylum
Wednesday, May 28, 2008 No, it wasn't a dream. I really did read this in yesterday's Bolton News.
Bolton Primary Care Trust spokesman, Debbie Collinson, said: "One of the problems with the smoking ban is that it has made smoking high profile. Getting rid of packs of 10 cigarettes will make them that bit harder to obtain because it will be so much more expensive. There is also the old adage of out of sight, out of mind, and if cigarettes are removed from view I think it'll make a real difference to the number of young people who start smoking."
Let me get this right. Government policy has resulted in smoking becoming "high profile". So, rather than amend the smoking ban, they now intend to ban the display of cigarette packets - in much the same way as some campaigners want to ban smoking in outdoor areas to cut down on "noise pollution" and litter which are the result of ... the smoking ban.
Is there no end to this lunacy? Story HERE.
Reader Comments (11)
This reminds of something from the 1950's. Our local park had a change of groundsman. The first thing he did was to remove the 2 foot high fencing around the flowerbeds. My father was surprised by this and asked why he had taken this action. His reply confirms your view of this lunancy. He stated that by removing the fencing it would remove the valour of climbing over to nick the flowers in the first place. Over the following years this proved to be the case. All fencing when then removed and the flowers were left to bloom. Even now, 50 years later, there is still no problem.
When you make things widely available - the novelty wears off,
In Sweden they had a problem with rape. They took the decision to legalise Pornography. We know what this achieved. Rape became almost non existant. Why are we as a Country looking at alternatives wgeb the answers have been around for decades.
Such logic...
If smoking outside closed doors makes smoking high profile - then removing cig packs from display lowers profile - yet smokers are still outside.
Surely putting smokers back inside is the obvious answer to the 'high profile' problem.
I have the strongest feeling that I no longer fit in this world... it just doesn't make sense to me any more. All the decision-makers seem to have an IQ of about 3.
Amazing flower bed story Alun. They don't make groundsmen like that any more!
Making adults play hide and go seek for cigs is pathetic. kids are more likely to buy cheep fags on the corner of the streets.
Stephen craig has a piece in The Times.
Rampton Psychiatric hospital. The high court Judge ACCEPTED that EUconvention of human rights Article 8, is a diffuse & difficult to define. Other hospitals have allready a total ban.
The judge said giving up smoking would not worsten the condition of mental patients.
NHS DECIDED to introduce total ban. Sometimes a cig is the only thing to cling onto.
The lunitics are running the asylems.
People coming back from Europe with their allocation of 3,200 cigarettes tend to smoke more until they are running low. People who buy 10 cigarettes before going out with their mates will finish the packet and if they have to buy twenty they will obviously finish that packet if not that day, but the next. If the Government want people to reduce their smoking, they ought to bring back packets of five.
Excellent point Chas - even go as far as to sell them in singles, like the old days! That way, those who just like the odd social smoke need only buy the one or 2 for that evening instead of a packet. The fact that they will have to buy 20 in the future still won't stop them - even if they don't buy 20 they will cadge of a smoker!
It just goes to prove even more that the total numbskulls in power have absolutely no idea whatsoever of what makes the ordinary, every day people of this country tick! They might just as well have gone to Mars with that probe, at least it would have relieved us of their tedium!
Lyn. Great idea about the Mars probe and would suggest that they placed themselves in front of it on lift-off.
This government has criticised others of dictating to its people and yet it is doing the same in this country. Obviously, it's only wrong when others do it. It reminds me of the NRT advert you see on TV. The one that tells us that it supplies medically controlled Nicotine to beat the craving. On a BBC show the other week about property under auction the presenter claimed the brown stains on the paintwork were caused by Nicotine. He didn't have a clue that this was caused by Tar which is by-product of burning Carbon. All fuel in domestic use is Carbon based.
If you look at London and other large cities or towns you will see the discolourisation of all stonework. Does ASH expect us to believe this is caused by cigarette smoke - I wonder.
Why do they think that out of sight is out of mind. This isn't just an insult to the intelligence of young people and smokers, do they really think that society is so stupid that if they produce blank packaging and then hide them under the counter - people will think 'duhhh what's a packet of cigarettes' They say their aim is to dissaude young people from smoking but all they will achieve is to make it more intriguing! Have they forgotten that the more you tell a young person 'no' or 'you shouldn't do that' the quicker they'll do it. I'm over 40 and when they brought in the smoking ban last year it made me dig my heals in and I didn't just smoke because I enjoy it but it became a protest against the unjust control the government is trying to exercise over all of us in ever increasing aspects of our lives.Apart from all that, their paranoia and obsession with smoking is just getting laughable and they should be embarrassed by how much they're allowing themselves to be manipulated by 'ash'.
More U turns. Health warnings were put on cigarette packets to warn people of the dangers and now they want to hid the packets with the health warnings. Smokers were told to go outside pubs and clubs to smoke and now they don't want children to see people smoking.
This government is likely to be doing so many U turns in the coming months that it will just end up going round in circles! The only hope is that will also disappear up it's own backside in the process!
Julie B, you said "when they brought in the smoking ban last year it made me dig my heals in and I didn't just smoke because I enjoy it but it became a protest"
This reminded me of something I did recently. I have become a reporter for a website about entertainment in Spain. I was asked for a picture to go with the info about who I was. I had a very appropriate piccie, which included my arm in a 'gesticulating' position holding a cigarette. I thought, shall I crop it, to remove the cigarette. I then realised what I was thinking, my goodness I thought, this indoctrination is beginning to invade my own personal thoughts. I won't say what I thought next, but it contained one or two expletives. I sent the piccie as it was, and boy did I feel good when it went on the website uncropped.