The interview was given two days ago.

Comments

[Sandy Jamieson]

It is highly amusing to note that this policy came in the very same day the Government announced an acceleration of the policy of reducing the number of reglations affecting business.

It actually is denying business the right to free speech but in these days of EU Regulation, US pressure and Heathite government, I am not surprisied.

[Edward Huxley]

Tobacco this week, why not alcohol next? Then there`s the obesity caused by chocolate and sweets. Let`s put them all under the counter.

The nanny state is alive and well in Britain.

BTW I`m non smoker, but if we all stopped smoking,which is what nanny Lansley wants, what would be taxed to replace it?

[Richard M]

I wish all smokers would unite for a month and NOT purchase any smokes. I am sure the Treasury would soon get the message. Don't want us to smoke? Then do not expect a massive tax stream of income then.

[Public Sector Worker]

"I wish all smokers would unite for a month and NOT purchase any smokes."

I'd pay to see that happen, unless you're advocating thievery or buying counterfeit.

[It doesn't add up...]

He wants to encourage smuggling and organised crime, reduce government revenues, increase the size of the NHS to deal with the bigger lifetime health costs of non-smokers, and add to pension bills.

[Edward Huxley]

No doubt this silly ban and the recent price increase will delight the smugglers.

[Dave Atherton]

Andrew Lansley I am afraid has been hypnotised by his civil servants, government funded charities who er.. lobby government from a diet of misinformation, junk science and rent seeking.

Where the display ban has been implemented in Iceland and Ireland, youth smoking went up. In Canada youth smoking had declined rapidly preceding and then flat lined.

In Canada and Ireland it also encouraged the illegal market where now 25% of the tobacco imported is now illicit. In the Canadian provinces, Quebec alone lost 10,000 or 15% of convenience stores. A typical convenience store in the UK and Canada, 25%-37% of customers that come in are smokers.

In a report submitted to the Department of Health written by Professor Hilary Graham she accuses the Tory government of and I quote: {Smokers} 'seen as disgusting and dirty outcasts.'

Not only that ‘The history of public health is scarred by policies which, pursued in the name of health protection and promotion, have served to intensify public vilification and state-sanctioned discrimination against already disadvantaged groups.

‘Across the 19th and 20th centuries, poorer communities, including migrant and indigenous groups, were cast as the contaminating other whose habitual behaviours were seen to threaten ways of life.'

There you have it the government appears to be sanctioning discrimination that would put the BNP to shame, if not in the dock.

As a life long Conservative voter, member and activist, Lansley should be ashamed of himself for not only turning smokers into social pariahs, but embracing the nanny state.

Dave Atherton
Freedom2Choose
Chairman

[eugene]

I remember a pro-Conservative advert showing a kid, with her smoker mom, in a park, wishing the then Labour government would stop saying 'my mom is going to die' and 'just leave us alone!'

...if you cannot run a country properly, start picking on groups of people to distract. Gee, Cameron has teenage pop videos for banning in his sites now.

[It doesn't add up...]

Did he find Elvis' hip gyrations too shocking?

[robert]

We all know that tobacco is a killer and the government would be failing in their duty to try to reduce smoking by whatever method.
Ask any doctor what is the best thing anybody could do to avoid many illnesses and it will be to stop smoking.

[Disgruntled moron]

I don't smoke and have spent a lot of time in supermarkets and I don't know what I'd do with this nice man from the government stopping these evil, nefarious supermarkets from trying to sell something to me I've never taken before. Drug dealers aren't allowed to set up stall outside of a supermarket and I still see lots of crackheads around there.

[Davidbeandotorg]

Anyone who wishes to do so is free to ask their doctor such questions, and then take the advice or leave it alone; it should be obvious to anyone that health is not the only consideration in the decision of whether or not to smoke, and nor is it anyone else's business what factors a person chooses to prioritise in making that decision. It's not the government's job to interfere with the decisions people make about themselves.

[simon]

This load of nonsence makes me despair of the so-called 'intellect' of politicians. If smoking is such a social ill- then ban the ciggies! I think the Govt should concentrate on a much more pernicious social ill such as people being forced to work all hours to make ends meet- whilst doing this family ties are weakened with both parents having to work. Thanks to our political 'masters' (meant to be servants) for deciding we have to work in our jobs until we are 67 (or just about dead). Most people enjoy their jobs so much we just can't bear to leave, so why bother with a retirement age! Thank you so very much.

[Denis Cooper]

I think that if a customer goes over to the tobacco counter in a supermarket then it can be assumed that he's already decided that he wants to buy tobacco products. All this means is that having queued up he's more likely to belatedly discover that the brand he wants is out of stock, another unnecessary pain in the backside for millions of people in their everyday lives.

Here's another idea - let's put Andrew Lansley and his ilk in a closed cabinet, until somebody actually asks for them, rather than having them on constant public display where people may be tempted to ...

[Sean O'Hare]

Well said David. There speaks a libertarian.

[Paul Harris]

Pfizer certainly get their money’s work in funding ASH. It’s a small price to pay for marketing their stop-smoking drugs. They even get £210 000 from the Department of Health as well.

[It doesn't add up...]

Don't they just want a lottery ticket? I think those should only be sold in plain paper wrappers and hidden from view (with a sound muffler on the printer).

[Mick mcgough]

If his NHS reforms are as stupid as this ban he should be sacked.Given that Ireland have done the same are we sure this is not EU inflicted?
I get the shop assistants to open all doors on the cigarette cabinets in turn before making my choice of purchase.When those behind me complain about the delay I am able to tell them about our tyrannical bipolar government.

I so hate this government that even pathetic Ed seems a better bet.

[Sheila]

Frankly I would think this decision has just lost the Party a whole swathe of supporters. Call it Nannying. Call it political correctness. It does,nt make any sense. It is merely pandering to the Health lobbyists and will have absolutely no effect whatsoever on the youngsters but has the capability of doing a lot of harm to businesses as well as alienating a lot of adult supporters. People are getting totally fed up with the constant persecution of smokers.
BTW. How,s the war on drugs going?
Much easier to pick on the decent hard working folks and if this is an example of the people we rely on to steer us out of the financial mess we,re in, ---------- words fail me.

[A Smoker]

No doubt plain packaging will give the crims a super-boost too. Thick as, er, something to do with pigs, the lot of 'em.

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