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Soft soap on smoking

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Published Date: 01 January 2009
Like thousands of other smokers, I now have to stand out in the wind and rain to have a cigarette as we are no longer allowed to smoke in pubs or cafes.
The government already has a helpline to help people stop smoking. Now it is planning to make shops put cigarettes under the counter and out of sight, to help prevent our young people taking up the habit.

I can understand all this and I am in full agreement with it, if it prevents people smoking and as a result saves them from dying of cancer.

What I can't understand is how the government allows young people to be shown smoking in TV soaps. Surely the government should not allow this to happen. Storylines in soaps have been used in the past to put over a political message.

JOHN CONNOR

David Henderson Court

Dunfermline, Fife





Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 31 December 2008 6:55 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
 
1

Hugh Roscombe,

31/12/2008 19:30:59
Even better - scrap this crazy law.
2

Merlin90,

01/01/2009 00:32:37
Like thousands of smokers, I've stopped going to the pub, we now organise, on a rota system, visits to friends were can smoke, the smoking ban in pubs has been very good news, no longer do I spend my hard earned cash in them, where our needs aren't catered for. I prefer supermarket bought alcohol, it's cheaper. There's no way that I'd stand outside a pub to smoke! They can go out of business first!
3

Gdgy,

01/01/2009 10:45:36
The smoking ban is here to stay, here to stay, here to stay
etc......
4

DaveA,

Room101 01/01/2009 12:09:22
John, you may not like yourself for being a smoker, I have no such problems. The last time I looked 24% of the adult population smoked. So 1/4 characters should be smoking. If you want some realism some of the locals in soaps should be closing as 3,000 pubs have gone to the wall in 2008. Putting cigarettes underneath the counter does not lead to less sales and infact youth smoking in Scotland has risen from in 2004 from 24% to 31% in 2008.

Anti smoking measures has been an abject failure and a waste of taxpayers money.

Gdgy the smoking ban to me is like the Poll Tax.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7791012.stm


5

Gdgy,

01/01/2009 12:23:45
The smoking ban is here to stay, here to stay, here to stay
etc......

Because over 80 % of people agree with it.....go figure.......
6

DaveA,

Room101 01/01/2009 12:48:19
Do you mean polls like this. You are right about 80% but in Edinburgh they are FOR smoking in pubs. And of course this poll was heavily biased, being commssioned by the Nicotine Replacement Therapy providers Nicontinell. BTW Edinburgh is in Scotland, not California so do me a favor (sic) and post in your own country.

"A NEW poll has suggested that any proposed total ban on smoking in public places would not get the overwhelming support of people living and working in Edinburgh. According to the local street poll conducted in the city by Nicotinell, more than half - 52 per cent - were against a total ban.

Some 81 per cent of smokers interviewed in Edinburgh were against any ban, primarily because they believed they had a right to smoke but also due to concerns about a ban’s effect on their social lives. More surprisingly, 37 per cent of non-smokers were also against the idea of a total ban on the basis of smokers’ rights."

http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/latestnews/Capital-bucks-trend-on-total.2487734.jp
7

Rollo Tommasi,

01/01/2009 13:02:56
Ahhh, first post of the year!!

So let's put your thoughts to the test, DaveA.

What share of the vote have pro-smoking candidates got in recent Scottish elections?

2007 Scottish elections: UKIP - 0.4%; Publican Party - 0.3%
Glasgow East by-election: Freedom-4-Choice - 0.2%
Glenrothes by-election: UKIP - 0.3%

In summary: minute shares of the vote on each occasion. Proof that most people either support the new laws or feel there are more important issues on which to base their votes. Either way, it looks like Gdgy has reason to be confident that the smoking laws are here to stay, here to stay, here to stay....
8

DaveA,

Room101 01/01/2009 13:15:28
Happy New Year to you Rollo, my posts are not the same without you.

The poll I quoted was done on the street on members of the public.
9

Rollo Tommasi,

01/01/2009 13:42:18
Thanks for your kind words DaveA. And a Happy New Year to you too.

We can play a bit of survey tennis, batting different figures back and forth. But your news story has some particular flaws:
1. It is now over 5 years old.
2. The article explicitly makes the point that the Edinburgh results bucked the national trend.

Are you suggesting that policy for Scotland should be changed, based on what some people said over 5 years ago in a poll of Edinburgh people only, and ignoring the contrasting views of people elsewhere in Scotland?
10

Mikey,

01/01/2009 14:59:24
Rollo, how about giving publicans the right to decide whether smoking can be doneon their premises? Everybody would be happy then, surely?

In that situation, I would boldly predict that a lot of the NO smoking pubs would go to the wall.

But then, choice is probably a bit too democratic, eh?
11

DaveA,

Room101 01/01/2009 15:23:47
Rollo, it is normally down to the question that is posed. If you had these questions asked I am sure us smokers could expect a positive result.

1. Would you allow smoking only pubs?
2. Would you allow a multi room pub to put 1 room aside for smoking, provided it is well sectioned off with ventilation?
3. Would you allow a private members club, e.g. a cigar club to set their own smoking policy?

My point it is why do we need laws if no smoking pubs are so popular?





12

Bluejen,

Edinburgh 01/01/2009 18:18:38
I am for the anti-smoking law. If people want to smoke and get lung cancer that is up to them. The only thing I would say is that they should not be given priority in NHS hospitals since it is self inflicted.

 

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