As a life-long smoker, I fully
recognise what a truly unhealthy habit it is and certainly wouldn't recommend
it to my worst enemy, let alone to someone that I actually cared about. But
then again, I'm not sure that anyone with a modicum of commonsense would
actually start smoking, purely on the recommendation of somebody else, or
indeed because they happened to like the pretty colours of the various
cigarette brand packets, which seems to be the basic tenet of the argument
being put forward by the various health lobbyists who have the British
parliament's "ear" at present.
Never having been a huge fan of
this wholly unrepresentative chamber, which simply serves to promote the narrow
ideological interests of the three main parties, along with the various
lobbyists, focus groups and financial backers who support them, today's vote on
the issue of plain cigarette packaging is simply the latest measure, which
illustrates the utter contempt our elected representatives have for the people
of this country. Not only will the new changes to the rules governing cigarette
packaging be devoid of any parliamentary discussion, but they're also being
introduced on the most questionable levels of evidence, much of which will never
be heard by the British public, who should after all be the final arbiters of
such matters.
If the Conservative, Labour or
Liberal Democrat parties were so certain of the evidence pertaining to
cigarette packaging, that young people were attracted to and encouraged by
bright colours to take up smoking, then why hasn't that policy formed one of
their manifesto promises, rather than underhandedly using parliamentary
procedure to sneak the measures into law? Could it be that there is no
conclusive evidence that potential smokers are being encouraged to take up the
habit because of the attractive and colourful packaging? Might it be that they
don't want people to know that the only people who will be celebrating these
new rules will be the smugglers and counterfeiters who will doubtless benefit
from the changes? Do they not realise that the grotty and unpleasant images
will count for nothing, if new and existing smokers simply buy themselves a
tobacco tin, or a cigarette case? Are they trying to hide the fact that an
average smokers contributes in excess of £40 per week in additional taxes to
the UK Exchequer, some or all of which could be lost to the UK's tax
authorities; and handed instead to criminal gangs, or foreign manufacturers?
Of course, if you choose to
believe the anti-smoking propaganda in the media, then you won't have heard
that Australia's plain cigarette packaging campaign has been an absolute
disaster from the outset. You also won't have heard or read that cigarette
smuggling has increased, that counterfeiting has increased, or that entire
towns and villages in China have been given over to producing traditionally
branded cigarettes especially for the Australian market? As with most products,
consumers can choose to vote with their wallets; and while tens of millions of
Australian dollars are going out of the country to the criminal gangs and
cigarette makers in China, the Australian Health Service is still having to
pick up the financial tab for the tens of thousands of smokers who will suffer from
the effects of their daily habit.
Not content with having directly
caused the closure of 10,000 public houses since the smoking ban was first
introduced in 2007, along with the tens of thousands of bar jobs associated
with them, the demonisation of the nation's smokers continues apace. Virtually
every enclosed commercial space; and if some had their way, even publicly owned
open ground, would be turned into no-go areas for those who choose to waste
their own money and risk their own personal health. But even these draconian
measures aren't enough for the fervent anti-smoking activists, who would have
politicians believe that we're not mature enough, or indeed intelligent enough,
to make an informed decision about our own health and that we need them to decide
for us what we put into our bodies, regardless of how we feel about it. Isn't
it a pity though that they're not so zealous when it comes to the millions of
Britons who regularly poison their bodies each week through the consumption of
alcohol, or the 4000 people a year who end up dying from cirrhosis of the
liver. Where are the graphic images to deter them, or the plain packaged beer
bottles? Where is the campaign that advocates graphic warning images be put on
hamburgers, pizzas or any of the other junk food that we Britons consume by the
ton? There are more people consuming crap food in the UK than there are
smokers, so where are the parliamentary statutory instruments to regulate them,
or indeed the taxes to discourage people from eating too many McDonalds, Burger
Kings, etc?
According to official figures
some 15,000 people a year die from alcohol related diseases, whilst 10% of the
annual death rate in the UK is thought to be attributable to obesity, which
equates to around 50,000 deaths per year, with obesity costing the NHS some
£2.5 billion per year. So, let's ask the question again. Where are the graphic
images, the higher taxes, the public information films, the advertising bans,
the social stigmatisation of those who drink too much, eat too much, as it is
for those who choose to, or have the individual temerity to smoke cigarettes in
public?
That isn't to say that smoking
isn't dangerous and harmful, it is. It's a crap habit that no-one in their
right mind would willingly adopt and kudos to those millions of smokers who
have managed to successfully kick the habit and are leading far healthier lives
as a result of it. However, in my forty years of smoking I have yet to meet a
single person who took up the habit principally because they were attracted by
the bright and engaging packaging that the fags were actually wrapped in and
for anyone to suggest that that might be the reason why a youngster starts
smoking is absolutely risible. It not only insults people's intelligence, but
also overlooks the most common reasons why kids do start to smoke in the first
place, their home environment and peer pressure. Most reliable studies tend to
suggest that a child brought up by a smoker, or who is the younger sibling of a
smoker, is far more likely to become a smoker themselves. Equally, young teens
who are surrounded by smokers (their immediate peers) are far more likely to
try smoking themselves, even if they don't go on to become regular smokers in
their later lives. The last thing that would influence their decision though
would be the actual packaging, as one would imagine that accessibility and
affordability are far more important factors for any youngster that wants to
adopt the habit, not the F*CKING colour of the pack, as has been suggested by
some, as yet unknown "expert".
Unfortunately, the fact that our
know nothing politicians are so keen to grasp this latest theory, without any
sort of credible evidence, or indeed meaningful and informed debate in the
country at large, will simply ensure that it will almost certainly result in
very little change in the numbers of youngsters taking up the habit. Instead,
all it will do will be to increase the amount of illegal tobacco products being
brought into the country for sale on the black market, reduce the amount of
revenue being delivered to the national exchequer, cause other taxes to rise in
order to make up the resulting fiscal shortfall and drive thousands of
newsagents and small corner shops out of business entirely. Not bad for a
policy that was supposed to offer a positive outcome.
Even though I smoke myself, I
recognise the need to buy legally obtainable tobacco, if only to put something
back into the NHS by way of the 77% tax that I pay on every pack I purchase.
However, given that the mainstream political parties seem bound and determined
to not only demonise me for being a smoker, but now want to purposefully offend
and annoy me by imposing a draconian measure that is not only unnecessary but
also rather pointless, then I have to question why I should even bother trying
to do the right thing as far as my tobacco purchases are concerned. I may as
well just give the criminals and smugglers my money instead and f*ck the idea
of trying to do the right thing as far as the country's concerned.
But then, isn't that what happens
when you get a pitiful parliament pandering to the wishes of their resident
lobbyists, focus groups and financial supporters, they simply end up making
themselves even more irrelevant to the lives of ordinary people, especially those
of us who are intelligent enough to work out just what's good for us, what's
not; and just where useless politicians fall into that personal
calculation.
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