Friday
Oct012010
Scrap the display ban says Tory MP
Friday, October 1, 2010 Thoughtful article by Conservative MP Mike Weatherley on ConservativeHome today. The title says it all, really: Listen to our nation of shopkeepers - and don't force through a tobacco display ban.
Full article HERE. It's not every day that an MP urges caution when confronted by the powerful tobacco control lobby so worth adding a comment over on ConservativeHome.
Reader Comments (5)
I know that we should be grateful for any support these days but I can't help but feel that, if he didn't think that shops would be adversely affected, Mr Weatherley would be all for the ban. No mention of the rights of adults to see the legal product they wish to buy or of the lack of evidence that the sight of a cigarette packet is enough to set a 14 year old on the road to 60 a day and the inevitable early, lingering, painful death.
"I am a committed "anti-smoker"..................."
Sorry to sound churlishly ungrateful for Mr Weatherly's wait-and-see approach to this issue, but his somewhat timid plea for an 'impact assessment' (oh, pleee-ase !) is hardly the Clarion Call to Freedom that so many of us expect.
And, incidentally, I'd have thought that the pub was a rather more likely candidate for the 'heart of the community' label than the local shop. Corner shops can, and do, come back. But when a pub dies, it tends to stay dead. And it was often as much a mainstay for the frail and the elderly and the lonely (lest anyone consider raising the matter) as Mr Patel’s emporium. Nor is there any Tesco-like equivalent to go to, either. What do you say to THAT, Mr Weatherly ?
Even little Caroline Spelman - whilst still the Chairman of the Party - was magnanimous enough to confess in a letter to me that a display ban was something that sat uncomfortably with (something she chose to call) her 'Conservative principles'.
'Committed anti-smoker' ?
Frankly, they should ALL be bloody committed...........................................
"We're told this will improve health in ten years time"
Its a pity the EU and their respective aparchik govts in the european union didnt show the same dedication of keeping a similar watchful eye for the PAST TEN YEARS on unregulated and bad banking practices, that has caused more suffering and death than any packet of fags could equal, instead of dedicating their full and far reaching resources to controlling tobacco.
Something sinister this way comes, I'm thinking.
We have a big problem, when government is not prepared to listen to anyone else apart from the health lobby
Am I missing something here, am I being a bit thick? Cannabis is an illegal product which isn't marketed anywhere, there is no retail outlet to buy it & no fancy advertising exists to promote it, but everywhere I go I see kids smoking it - so how does a ban on tobbaco displays in shops stop kids from taking up smoking? And, whilst on the subject how many kids do the anti-smoking nut jobs think would wander into a busy Pub clutching £7.50 which they would then proceed to slug into a fag maching, the answer: Bloody None thats how many!