BORIS JOHNSON: Rishi's smoking ban is barmy. Child A will be free to smoke like a chimney to the end of his days. Child B - born only a day later - will be a criminal if he does... How the hell is that supposed to work? »
I am an ex-smoker, but still, I am very much against this progressive smoking ban for young people. Firstly, it is undemocratic; secondly, this government has far more important things to concern itself with than a few young people taking up the smoking habit.
For starters, increasingly few young people do take up the habit these days; they prefer to vape. But then it must be said that one can hardly expect a young person to go to war for his country if he is not allowed a cigarette after battle. Take a look at how many Ukrainian soldiers are pictured with cigarettes!
Were I to have a son and he were he to be expected to fight for his country, I would be very unhappy if he were denied the simple pleasure of smoking a cigarette. Frankly, in this world, if the worst that a young person does is smoke a cigarette and enjoy a drink of alcohol twixt cradle and grave, I would consider myself a rip-roaring success as a father! People get up to far, far worse than smoking tobacco these days.
In any case, even though I no longer smoke, I am still against this ban. Successive governments have made the enjoyable habit of smoking far too expensive for most people, Here in the UK, a pack of Marlboro Reds is brushing £15 in many places! And the price increases each and every budget. This is deliberate government policy in order to curtail people's smoking and the pleasure smokers derive from it.
I stopped smoking in April 2022. And at that time, Marlboro Reds were precisely £12.50 a packet when I quit. Today, depending on where you live and on where you buy your cigarettes, the price of a pack is already up to £2 more! A £2 increase in price in that short time! That's crazy! I derived hours and hours of pleasure from smoking cigarettes. Alas, at these prices, no longer.
Even though it goes against the narrative of the health Nazis, there are actually health benefits to smoking. Just as an example, smokers or ex-smokers, are far less likely to contract Parkinson’s disease. There might even be a link to inhibiting the development of Alzheimer’s disease! There are also other health benefits, one being that it inhibits the development of type-2 diabetes.
Sunak knows nothing of these things. He is living in darkness. He should keep out of it and stop interfering in people's private lives. He needs to start behaving like a true Conservative. – © Mark Alexander
