Smoking laws

I never said you did.

The very people who lobby for this kind of legislation are all non smokers, or worse ex smokers.

I hate ex smokers cos they are without doubt the most double faced of all.

IF it became law you can bet there will be council officials on every street corner with their little clip boards, taking pictures for the purpose of sending someone a fixed penalty charge.

The Gestapo is alive and well out there.........you have been warned.

Well lets ban the car as well then?

It pollutes which surely does not help children walking to school, or those with bad asthma...it kills on a daily basis.

Where the heck does one draw the line on things that are bad for you?

I agree completely about not smoking in a car with kids in it, or smoking in a house with young children, but surely a level of common sense should prevail as well?

Cars have a purpose, they are pretty well essential for most people at least some of the time. Yes, there is a long way to got to reduce the pollution they create. And ideally reduce the dependency on them - most of us could walk or cycle more often.

But equating smoking with car driving is missing the point. Smoking has zero positive aspects - apart from people feel better with the nicotine - but that is just satisfying the chemical addiction. OK there is a tax argument but I think that hardly outweighs the health benefits people obtain when they stop smoking. I'm not talking a money trade-off here - just how people feel.

I don't think there is a line as such that we can draw. It's about balancing risk, cost, benefit and all that. There is no ideal world (outside of our imaginations), but we can work on making this one the best for all.

Tax from fags = 8.1 Billion (Politics.co.uk)
NHS spending on cigarette related illness = 1.7 Billion (money.msn.co.uk)

These figures are from 2008 so in reality, the amount of tax will have increased but the money spent on smoking related illness has in all likelyhood gone down, if only slightly (less older people who smoked their whole lives, less people smoking since the smoking ban)

The reality is that if they made smoking illegal as many people would like, this country would be even more on it's knees than it is now.

Let me ask those who want it made illegal. Would you be happy to pay the deficit in your yearly tax bill? No, I thought not. In 2008 there were approx 61383000 (children under 16 represented 1 in 5 of those figures) divide 8.1 billion between the figure of people in the UK and thats a scary figure. You'd either be taxed more or spending would be cut further, or more likely a combination of both to recoup the money, whichever, they are both scary thoughts.

Smoking was banned in Pubs & workplaces - fair enough. I happen to agree to a point with this.

I do however, object to getting filthy looks from non smokers for smoking in the street. Where the hell else am I supposed to do it? If you don't like it, dont fecking walk 5 inches from where i'm smoking!!!

no more so than motorists who make significant contributions to the public purse...