Smoking
 

After seeing a comment in another thread I decided to letof some steam.
"You could perhaps get a weekly report printed along the lines of I'm starting smoking campaign"


It seems that when centeral govenment gets one of its bright ideas then all seem to jump on the band wagon and smoking is again the target. Yes some people smoke though some want to stop but to have it pushed down their throughts until they cchoak on it is not right. The govenment says they can be a burden on the NHS but those same people seem to forget an important point. People who smoke are paying tax on their cigerettes.

These people are also invariably working and pay their tax and national insurance as well and to my way of thinking have already payed for their NHS treatment. This line raken by the govenment about smoking in pubs has a fair point to make but because of the money made off smokers you would think there could be a compromise made. There are drains on the system from other habits such as drugs and alcohol and yet these are not under the same pressure. Why they relaxed the law slightly for cannabis.

If all smokers wanted to be left in piece then they should stop for a day ore two and hurt the chancellor in his purse. There would be such a drop in the takings from tax he would give birth to a blue whale. Another possible issue from this is were would the money for the exchequer come from if smokers were forced to quit?

The chances are that tax for everybody would rise and then who could govenment blame? They push the ciggies issue yet there is more help for addicts of certain drugs and those with a booze problem example being the ex footy player. This is "alledgedly" a free country so if people want to smoke then let them if they want to quit help them but remember how much is paid in tax of ciggies and were the lost revenue uptake will come from.

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According to a report I read the other day, smokers cost the NHS £3.7 billion a year. The revenue from tax on tobacco is £8 billion a year. That sounds to me as though all smokers have paid for their treatment more than twice over.

How much do drug addicts cost the NHS? - free methadone and treatment for all the nasty things they pick up, and the damage they do to themselves when high.

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its all true- but smokers are a easy target (except me) lol

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I find it amusing that they are letting you stay in the pub longer poisoning your liver, getting drunk and getting into fights/falling down stairs, drink driving etc yet stopping you smoking because its bad for your health!

Ian (a non smoker)

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I won't be going in any pubs that ban smoking altogether.

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ime absolutely sick of this crap against smoking....

dosnt the govenment realize how difficult it was for me to start smoking in the first place

i spent 3 months on nicorette chewing gum then phased in nicorette patches in addition to the gum, i then spent a further 4 months on the nicorette inhalators and finaly i was ready for my first cigrette.

i thought my self sacrifice was helping the govenment by raising much needed funds for the NHS but i now find i am been penalized by the very people i was trying to help

thanx for nothing Mr Blair :mad:

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I stopped about three years ago. I woke up one morning and decided I’d had enough. The first thing I did was put on weight nearly two stone. I don’t mind people who continue to smoke, I can choose to avoid it by going else where or I can live with it. I don’t mind or care all I ask is that you don’t do it in my home or my car. Its your right to smoke if that’s what you choose to do. If the Government wanted to protect your health they would ban it all together. Truth is, based on figures available it’s not in there interest to ban it financially or socially. It just a case of how the wind blows……Give us a drag.

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Had the same discussion with a friend of mine last night on this subject eek i think she wanted a row lmao Tho she said the pubs round her way had banned smoking but not altogether where outside one pub they put benches, tables & patio heaters for the smokers outside & that seemed to pick up his business.....notice smokers now are relegated to outside but least there is choice.

Its rather a catch 22 is smoking revenue>health>choice

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We hear so much about the cost to the NHS of smokers. Surely everyone, except private patients, is some cost to the NHS. While I'm not recommending smoking, every person on this earth is going to die one day and it's not just smokers who will need some kind of medical care before they go.

Now, if we were able to say that only smokers die, that would be a big incentive to the weed-puffers to give up. Sadly, even if you've never been closer than 30 feet to a cigarette and/or its fumes, one way or the other you're going to go. Cancer and heart disease are dreadful illnesses but, unfortunately, they are not exclusive to smokers.

Perhaps the NHS handle on this is that if you are a non-smoker you may possibly live to a much riper old age. That means that when your "time" comes no one will make much fuss if your treatment is minimal and you're allowed to "slip away", quietly and inexpensively. ("Well, your father is 95, Mr Snodgrass, so we're just going to keep him comfortable without any intervention"). Do you see what I mean?

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I'm afraid it will be all the non-smokers who will cost the State more in the long run.

With life expectancy increasing all the time, and with pensions only affording to keep you in inncontinence pants, it will be down to the State to look after the homes full of people who don't smoke, displaying their birthday cards from the palace and playing bingo.

Good luck, I'll be long gone.:)

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That is a good point so if the state whants to stay solvent smokers are keeping it that way. :D

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Anything is dangerous to health really ..........even mobile phones!!!!

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Not if you leave a long enough stub.;)

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Even a leaving long stub can be bad for your health;):rolleyes::D

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So to is to much exersice but that is never frowed upon like a poor bod with a ciggie.

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i dont mind too much...just ban smoking in restaurants please..i dont want to have the non-smoking table that just borders on the smoking section thankyou..it seems the smoke doesnt really care which bit it dines in! thankyou xxx lol

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Like i said on another thread we are just easy soft targets for people to blame for everything as its been said here that other things are just as much causation.

Like drinking too much look at Besty at the mo & all the binge drinkers

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As a non smoker, I'd welcome the ban, especially in restaurants, pubs, well I know there smoky but I still choose to go in, I also agree that alcohol is just as bad for you and also costs the nhs millions, but people who drink in moderation, providing they dont pick fights or drive aren't harming anyone else.

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oh hell ban everything!!! who wants to have fun anyway??? ;)

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I see from the Observer that PB is stopping smoking......personally, I wouldn't have bothered calling the fire brigade!

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It wouldnt have bothered PB he aint paying for it.

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Just another excuse to get into the paper if you ask me.

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And better yet, we are going to be subjected to his diary on the subject......He's looking for sponsorship - the good thing is......(I was going to say he is donating his body to medical science, but that was just a bit of whimsy) the proceeds go to Cancer Charities.

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I think you might be right there Grego..... This man is an ego-maniac......the sooner Mrs K wipes the grin off his mush.....and I truly hope she does.

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Sorry for the slight Thread wander.....well, it IS related....sort of!

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Yeh i think so too he's a smarmy get

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Margaret I really hope she does too, I dont live in that ward but I'm not keen on him.

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I don't live in that Ward either........and I cannot stand the man.....he reminds me of a slug, now.....where did I put that salt?

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They've brought this bill in about smoking in pubs and its a total mess. If your pub does food then you cant smoke in it. If your pub doesnt do food then you can smoke in it. If you belong to a private members only club you can still smoke. Can you see what is going to happen - pubs that only do a small taking on food are going to stop doing food all together so that they can still be a smoking pub.

I went to dublin where the no smoking ban is in place and i liked it. If i wanted a ciggie i had to go outside either the front door or some of the pubs had designated areas outside with patio heaters and chairs and umbrellas. I found that i didnt smoke as much because i had to go outside.

The only thing is though as i've been told once you get out of dublin and the main cities that a lot of bars/pubs have shut because of the no smoking ban. People because they couldnt smoke just didnt go out and so they lost a lot of business. Also the further you get away from dublin and the main cities it isnt enforced as much - so they are still smoking in pubs and bars down in deepest galway!

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I think its going to be a hard law to police, I mean fines of £50 if you're caught lighting up, are there going to be patrols in all pubs, dont think so!

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as a smoker who is very passionate about P.B. i just wish he'd carry on- nay increase his smoking and make me a very happy bunny,call me callous i can't help it.:D

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But that wouldn't get him in the paper Cashy.

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It would, eventually, but in the obituary column. Cashman and I think alike on this subject.

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Specially if the cops smoke themselves:rolleyes:

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Ciggie police what will we get next?

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I thought that too, but it could be years away!

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Let me state at the outset that I accept that smoking is bad for the smoker and obnoxious to the non-smoker in the vicinity but both groups have rights that clash.

A couple of years ago when I was forced to use public transport because my car was going through its annual service I was stood at the bus stop in a queue. A bus arrived but it was not the one that many of the others in the queue and me wanted. As passengers alighted and some of the queue boarded I found myself in line with the back of the bus whose engine was ticking over thrusting clouds of fumes into the atmosphere. I was smoking at the time and the woman behind me in the queue objected to me smoking because I was polluting the air she was breathing. She just wouldn’t accept that the bus’s exhaust fumes were causing her far more harm than my one cigarette. Much to her chagrin I continued to smoke the rest of my fag until the bus arrived during which time she tried to force me to stop. I didn’t! I was in that space first.

It is this hypocritical attitude of non-smokers that sticks in my craw. They crave for clean air to breathe but are quite happy to breath the atmosphere polluted by vehicle fumes and industry yet object to tobacco smoke.

I accept that public buildings should be non-smoking areas but only IF THE OWNER OF THE BUILDING DECLARES IT SO and not because of some government intervention. In the open air if a non-smoker invades my space then that is their problem if I happen to be smoking. They should keep clear of my space.

The work place should be a non-smoking work place unless 100% of the workforce and the management want it otherwise. Pubs and restaurants should declare themselves as either smoking or non-smoking and let market forces decide which was the right decision. Will any of the non-smoking campaign participants go to all the pubs and restaurants that they are trying to force becoming non-smoking? Not likely! These anti smoking brigadiers just want to impose their way of life on the rest of us. I don’t see non-alcohol drinkers doing the same to the boozers. Yet alcohol causes far more distress, harm, injury and instant death to innocent bystanders than tobacco ever did. Are the young yobos, yobos because they smoke or is it because of alcohol? Nurses and doctors get attacked in A & E by drunken louts not someone wanting to smoke a fag. Our town centres are full of rowdy, drunken people on a night out. Cars are vandalised by drunks, not smokers.

If a non-smoker visits a pub that allows smoking then they have no right to complain and definitely no right to try to force the pub to become non-smoking. If I walk into a building that does not allow smoking I wouldn’t dream of even asking if anyone minded if I smoked. I obey the rule for that building. I don’t try to force my view onto others, so why should they do that to me?

Finally, if smokers die younger than non-smokers then the government (in reality that is the tax payer) is saved the burden of paying their pensions.

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The general consencus on here then is to smoke, is this a true percentage reflection of what the population think? do the majority of non-smokers give a hoot whether we smoke or not, passive or otherwise? The figure of what revenue tobacco raises against the NHS burden is an interesting one. I spend about £30 pound a week on fags and I estimate about 75% of this this to be tax related. That means I will pay around £62,400 over 40 years. I will only need treatment once if at all. Does this cost more or less than £62,400. If I dont die before pension age can I opt to have my non-existant-by-that-time state pension fund topped up please.
And what about petrol stations? their profits are based on the extra 30p a pack they charge for fags, so your fuel cost are going to rise. Haulage companies will go out of business thus putting more people on benefits
And where will all the Asian greengrocers (why GREEN grocers?) go when we stop popping in for smokes. More benefits thats what! No taxi's cos we won't be going to the now smoke free pubs. Unemployed taxi drivers means more benefits! And unemployed Asian doctors cos we are all going to be fit and healthy. More benefits!

So in general, stop smoking means Less tax revenue from fags, Less tax revenue from alcohol, Increase in the welfare state deficit and Increase race riots because the unemployed shoppies,drivers and doctors will have the time for Holy Jihad

Have a word with yourself Tony Blair, I think you need to have a lie down

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AND MACCAWOZZAGOD

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At last nice to see a balanced arguement that isnt one sided!!

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Recently my daughter went to Ennis in southern Ireland, she was out with four of her cousins, she is a non-smoker and she told me yes it was very pleasant going into the pubs there all nice and clean and no smell of smoke.
However after they had been in the pub for quarter of an hour two of the group (smokers) said they were going out for a cig, the three non-smokers went out with them after they had all gone out together for the evening. Outside the pub was a bus shelter type building and they squeezed in there with the 50 other customers from the pub (smokers and non smokers), my daughter reckons this was far more horrendous for a non smoker than smoking pubs over here because all those people crammed into such a small space the atmosphere was thicker than the jelly on a pork pie!

So all this ban will do is force lots of people into smaller less comfortable spaces were they can share the concentrated secondary smoke.

They won't need to have patrols all they will do is throw the responsibility onto the landlord, if someone complains that he/she allows smokers into their pub, fines and no doubt bad marks against getting their licence renewed!

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How Bl**dy ridiculous! How much more of this sort of crap are we going to swallow before we have the guts to turn round to this government and tell it to keep it's nose and it's PC opinions to itself?

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Must admit do get weary of all my friends, etc., having a go at me for my excessive smoking and enjoyed some of the comments above. I am a lost case and can only agree that better not too than to. When I started work, the M.D. had a beautiful veneer cigarette box with posh cigarettes,silver lines down the paper. Stuyversant (can't spell it) I think. He offered them to visitors along with lemon tea. Now, wherever I go on busines, always offered a coffee ... mmmm caffeine and all that .. not long before this will be ban perhaps.
Where I presently work, there is a ban .. not arguing ... thought of fag ash all over my keyboard aint pleasant, however, there is a little room where employees who have been there since 1990 can go and have a fag !! As I have only been back with them for 5 years not allowed, so have to sniff up the air as I pass. How quirky is that ?? Think may have been something to do with the Unions.
Also, know of a couple of people now who have been fined £50 for dropping their stubs in the street. Was in Manchester Saturday and noticed that all the litter bins do not have the ash tray on top anymore .. another ploy to extract money from us smokers,eh.

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just read the lastest entries think jambutty put it rather well,also it appears that me @ a-b are not alone! pmsl, going off now for a fag.

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If there is any more of president blairs smart ideas we might as well emigrate to China it would be less hassle. Besides at least in China you can have a ciggie in piece (alledgedly).

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I'm afraid that it is a rock and a hard place for our beloved government as far as the smoking issue is concerned. On the one hand they need the revenue from taxation on ciggies, so can't afford to ban it completely. They feel that they need to play nanny and protect non smokers from passive smoke without infringing the human rights of smokers. A simpler solution would be to let the landlords decide whether they wanted their establishment to be smoking or non smoking, regardless of the serving of food. The pubs/restaurants must be clearly signed as either a smoking or non smoking establishment. Therefore if smokers want to eat and drink in a non smoking place, then they don't smoke whilst there. Alternatively if a non smoker wanted to eat or drink in a smoking establishment then they have made the choice to put up with the smoke... See, it's simple really..:D

All that this half hearted ban is doing is trying to make the government look concerned for our welfare. Unfortunately as the country can no longer afford to keep us in our old age, the nannying is all about making the govt look caring and improving their image.

We have more elderly people in this country than ever before. This is due to the natural killers of yesteryear Diptheria, Pertussis, TB, Childbirth and many more, being all but eradicated in this country. The numbers of deaths from these causes are now very low. Deaths from malignancy have also fallen drastically in the last 50 years (except for oesophageal cancer). The stillbirth and neonatal death rate has also dramatically fallen in the last 50 years. This means we have more people living longer so we need artificial killers to take the place of the natural ones. :D

In the 80's the birthrate decreased, it is now on the rise again. This contributes to the fact that the majority of the UK workforce is now aged between 35-50. We have fewer young people in this country to support the elderly by way of taxation.

So you see, the government want to appear caring and concerned for our health, but really they couldn't give a fig because they can't afford to keep us. It's all to do with image and in my opinion they can't even get that right.....

Anyone for a fag?????:D

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Must admit, I gave in to temptation Saturday night and had a couple of cig's and a couple of cigars, wonderful!

Spent all day Sunday going cold turkey again, got up this morning went to put some fuel in the vehicle and thought what the hell gave in and bought some ciggys I'm sat here now chain smoking and It feels so good, but, I will be attempting to give up again as soon as this packets gone because it did seem a monumental acheivement having gone as long as I did without a fag. But then if and when I do manage to give up I just hope I don't turn into one of these 'holier than thou', non smokers that will tolerate just about anything else except this particular human failing in others.


http://www.animationlibrary.com/Anim...king_skull.gif

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one reason why i didnt come down into the pub saturday night i had a very sore throat it got to the point where i couldnt breathe it hurt my throat and knowing that i would be in my own house where it would be like sitting in an ashtray i thought i would at least try and save me a day in my life and not cause me any more pain by breathing in other peoples smoke. i still had to work all day sunday with smoke being blown in my face at the bar and yes im feeling like s**t today and ive had to call in work sick as i now really dont have a voice at all and im coughing like i have been smoking for 50 years. (yes in my line of work i do need a voice or i would have worked). im all up for you smokers now in the end its your life your cutting down what can i say just dont expect people who dont smoke to feel sorry for you because you are not allowed to smoke anywhere. hey i dont need to smoke and i know i probably wont live past 60 everyone around me smokes so im living my life now to the full weather or not im starting to cough like im popping my cloggs already! :D

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One would have expected Acrylic-bob to have more sympathy with his esteemed leader. It is only a matter of months ago since A-b his very self appealed to the members of this forum to allow him a little leeway should he become more caustic-tongued than usual. The reason being, he was attempting to rid himself of his addiction to the dreaded weed. I don't think we ever got an update. How did you fare Acrylic-bob in your quest to become a non-smoker?