Starmer the non charmer

@luckylavender I really must find some time today to Google the research because, and I may be misremembering, I vaguely remember seeing something about how smoking saves the economy more than it costs.

Even if that's not the case, as I said yesterday it's definitely true that smoking is not as harmful for health than private renting. It was even published in the BMJ (British Medical Journal).

So whether the concem is about health or the economy, any genuine concern would prioritise providing more social housing over restricting smoking.

@GasPanic 🙄

People don't use them in moderation though. That's why we have an obesity epidemic.

And obesity costs the NHS 3x as much as smoking per year.

Yes but we don't have to eat crap.

Let's ban all that stuff. And ice cream as well.

They are all bad for peoples health and they all cost the NHS money.

We can all go back to eating potatoes and lettuce and a 5km run every morning.

@GasPanic well, let's be honest - if alcohol were newly discovered today it would be a class A drug.

Most of the rest of your list are not in the same class as cigarettes and alcohol if used in moderation.

I don't agree with banning things and I'm on the fence about the outdoor smoking ban - I really hate the smell of vapes though, more so than I do the smell of cigarettes outdoors.

@GasPanic - smoking is slightly different though isn't it? We have to eat.

If we start banning stuff on their cost to the NHS then we will probably be banning in pretty short order :

Fizzy dirnks.
Fast food, including burgers chips and curry.
Crisps
Chocolate
Barbequeues.
Alcohol
Vapes
Pizza
Sweets
Easter and Cadburys creme eggs

@Buddenbruchs - the economy was growing, unemployment was falling and the pound was strong.

@Whammyammy - 80k people a year die of smoking related diseases & over 500k hospital admissions are attributed to the habit.

I doubt if we'll get one. Likewise defence of the two tier comments.

Haha.

I won't moan if I am one of the 48%. I just want competence in government and not the drama and disgrace of the Johnson/Truss years.

I think this is where it started

and many who dislike having a Labour PM, dislikes Starmer or feel we do not have a true Labour Party in power call him a traitor

Spreading hate on the internet and inciting violence as well as perpetuating lies, is free speech and Starmer is criminalising it.

Well I would say the situation left by the Tories must be really bad if a Labour gov needs to cut. Agree a little more optimism wouldnt go amiss but better to get the misery done when there is at least some political capital.
At least Rachel Reeves and Kier Starmer have some decent brain power between them

You have a bad memory....

There may well be a long wait on that request pointy. Irrational ranting is the way to go apparently.

I still haven't had any rational explanation as to why there is a threat to free speech...

G morning OP. You forgot to throw some blame at Jeremy Corbyn in your initial post. Let me help you out. Altogether now, 'everything is the fault of Jeremy Corbyn but Keir Starmer, 50 days in, is also a dangerous pinko commie and wants to steal all your money'. Meanwhile, let's have a look at the line up of failed politicians who still haven't grasped reality and are lining up as leader of the Tory party. Hours of fun.

On smoking it brings in 8.8 billion in duties per year and cost 2.6billion to the nhs which is 2% of nhs spends. From a fast Google.

Though the 2.6B figure depends to vary with some places claiming upto 16billion depending on the narrative of who’s talking about it. When Sunack wanted to ban it forever it’s 16B yet two or three other places claim the 2.6B.

I think all parties always just blame the one prior. If it was a new boyfriend it would be a walking red flag. But they all do it.

This labour will blame the tories as the tories blamed labour before then rinse and repeat forever. None will ever hold their hands up and say we fucked up.

@LittleBowSheep

How does it help to keep blaming the Tories? His job is to take the country forward, not to keep whinging about the Tories.

How much better a position do you suppose we would we be in after the pandemic if we'd had a Labour government? (Clue we wouldn't be)

if you didn't vote Tory you effectively voted Labour.

I did not get anything against freedom of speech in his words.
He has been rather tough onbissues within his party which I do consider indeed freedom of speech and concience, but so far, I have not perceived any of that during the time in government. He will be tough, he has to. But he has not told us that we should not be saying this and that. Just that incitement to violence and violence itself will not go unpunished.

What free speech has he clamped down on? Oh you mean tweets in the middle of the riots suggesting its OK to burn a mosque down when that was happening so the person got convicted. Well you should know in the UK freedom of speech comes with responsibility and hate crime is a law already