they really are having a laugh now

[mark]

BBC NEWS | Politics | 'Ł10 licence to smoke' proposed

[KeithB]

Can just see the local bootleggers refusing to hand over the half price cancer sticks cos the buyer aint got a valid permit.

[Vamp]

This country is seriously going down the $H!TTER fast

[Charlie_Thompson]

Someone suggested on 5 Live that non-smokers should be forced to buy permits for treatment on the NHS as they contribute far less in taxes - dodgy arguement but you get the drift

[MickA]

I don't smoke and admit that I welcomed the smoking ban in pubs etc, a better NHS would be great aswell but this proposal is just barking mad.

I think the Monster Raving Loony Party is going to be popular in the next general election (or are they already in ???)

[Charlie_Thompson]

The dirty rotten scoundrels support the backy industry - Did Thatcher not take up some cushty post with BAT, I'm sure that waste of skin Mark T is up to his pencil neck in it. The ban on advertising was resisted for ages as a result of the power of vested interests and the tobacco lobbyists. It's legal FFS. Cane working people who rightly or wrongly enjoy a smerk and get all farty when non -resident billionaires are asked to pay a pittance in tax (Ł30000) A millionaire paying less in tax than his cleaner. Absolute shoite.

And we wonder why some kids are getting a bit knifey. Following the lead of our completely ammoral and corrupt arse kissing leaders i believe

[Vamp]

I say the smoking ban in pubs and work place is a good idea,why should people breath other peoples smoke in,plus pubs smell a lot nicer now.
I smoke tried loads of times to pack in,will eventually.
Instead of a licance if they want people to stop smoking they should take them off the shelves for sale full stop,that would solve it.
Why do they not pure {GREED} all it boils down to they want the taxes.
This licence lark is just another way of them to make it.

Its not the licence for buying tabs that pees me off,its the fact that its getting to be that you cant fart in this country with out someone bringing some stupid idea out so the goverment can make more money from us people.
I think people already pay enough in different licences and taxes,such as fuel,food,gas,electric and what ever else they do it on.

If owt they need to introduce a licence for buying beer from corner shops and that.
Stop all this under age drinking going on {kids working there ticket when they had a few bottles of cheap booze/wine},and it should be a free licence,but you need to apply for it if your a certain age,that would stop half the bother in this country

[Charlie_Thompson]

I say the smoking ban in pubs and work place is a good idea

I say you are wrong - Why the feck can't we have smoking and non-smoking pubs, and possibly due to the use of teckmology - pubs where you can have a smoking area and a non-smoking area. I'll tell you why we can't anymore, because a gang of useless nobbers many of whom have never had a proper job and who have only associated with other nobbers say so and we have to eat it Less than 50% of us vote for these dweebs and more than a 100% of us have to abide by the bollox they come up with - Christ on a fecking bike

[blackcat]

The stupid idiots forget a huge percentage of there taxes are lost to black market tobacco (dealers).
No the wonder they push people to buy off unscrupulous people (not all), and then in 20 years time they wonder: eeeee why has our tax revenue on tobacco gone to zero but class A drugs and guns are rife and the NHS is still full of people with smoking related illnesses.

[tooly]

Now they've stopped all these people smoking with the ban and the price hikes,they have to get the money they are losing in taxes back somehow.I had a debate about this at work with some hairyarsed liberal non smoking veggie single parent gay male type chap who would not accept an argument against the ban.He would not accept,either,that alcohol related incidents are more of a drain on the NHS.He will not also accept that in years to come everyone will be taxed to the hilt to cover the cost of the smoking ban,due to the offshoot problems it will cause to the economy.
By the way I don't smoke.

[5150]

Well, I've been on both sides of the fence, though only briefly on the now hated side, but having watched a parent, a long term heavy smoker, die of lung cancer and seen other family members hit by the same creeping death, presumably for the same reasons, if fags are the cause then the sooner they're taken out of the equation the better.

It's easy to throw facts, figures and opinions at something but when you are directly hit and the finger can and is only pointed at one cause then it's just all the more ****ing annoying to see these debates rage. When you watch someone die the slow, horrible death that comes with lung cancer from smoking, it's not worth the debate with someone who hasn't seen it, they can't and won't understand until it's too late.

[mark]

Well, I've been on both sides of the fence, though only briefly on the now hated side, but having watched a parent, a long term heavy smoker, die of lung cancer and seen other family members hit by the same creeping death, presumably for the same reasons, if fags are the cause then the sooner they're taken out of the equation the better.

It's easy to throw facts, figures and opinions at something but when you are directly hit and the finger can and is only pointed at one cause then it's just all the more ****ing annoying to see these debates rage. When you watch someone die the slow, horrible death that comes with lung cancer from smoking, it's not worth the debate with someone who hasn't seen it, they can't and won't understand until it's too late.

then why not ban tobacco outright, it would make the most sense, but its not economically a favourable solution.

[Charlie_Thompson]

Well, I've been on both sides of the fence, though only briefly on the now hated side, but having watched a parent, a long term heavy smoker, die of lung cancer and seen other family members hit by the same creeping death, presumably for the same reasons, if fags are the cause then the sooner they're taken out of the equation the better.

It's easy to throw facts, figures and opinions at something but when you are directly hit and the finger can and is only pointed at one cause then it's just all the more ****ing annoying to see these debates rage. When you watch someone die the slow, horrible death that comes with lung cancer from smoking, it's not worth the debate with someone who hasn't seen it, they can't and won't understand until it's too late.

I've seen it thrice - hate myself for not giving up yet and am terrified of going the same way.

I've also known a number of people who've drank or driven themselves to death. Banning does not stop things from happening.