Parents face ban on smoking in front of children - apologies if there's already a thread on this.

[TAFKAtheUrbanDryad]

Here. Fucking lunacy! I assume they'll be banning drinking in front of children too, since drinking is far more disruptive to society?

I agree that parents shouldn't smoke in the house where there are kids, and I would welcome legislation which stopped people smoking in the car with their kids, but this is sheer craziness!

And yes, of course the ideal is that people quit smoking, but it's not that simple is it?

Tidey I smoke and I agree with you. If they stopped selling them then I wouldn't be able to buy them and pay all the extra tax on top of what I pay already. Might get my back up but once the nictotine is out of my system and I couldn't get hold of my fix I would be over it.

Just been to two different countries on holiday and the smoking ban is worldwide. Both countries were sensible about it. No ban outside at all, warm so lovely and pleasant to sit out, and smoking bars that only adults could go in or not if they hate it that much.

This country has gone stupid over it. In some outside places with a roof and walls that only a smoker would stand in in the cold are have signs saying it is illegal to smoke a legal substance here, thinking about outside Manchester airport. Thank god everyone ignored the stupid signs.

Christmaseve How do you demonise smoking? Not smoking is not the same as demonising it.

I don't smoke but I agree with Custy. Either ban ciagarettes or just fuck off nannying everybody.

How are they going to enforce this? The country is bankrupt but they would like to inundate the police/social services with this.

Cockends.

The more I think about this the more it pisses me off.

The government ban smoking in public.
They plaster cigarette/tobacco packets in utterly horrifc pictures to try to put people off smoking.
They fund 'Help to quit' services.
They're trying to ban people from smoking in any enclosed space, like their home or car.
They reckon cigarettes should be sold under the counter, rather than being on display.

And yet shops are still selling them because it generates millions of pounds.

Surely they either want people to quit or they don't. Aaaargh

nothingofthesort. There are lots of people out there who actively demonise smokers.

I am a smoker and the ban has bred lots of biggotted people including some parents who think that if a puff of smoke outside wafts past their children then they are giving them cancer. They will also be vocal about it. Just look at some of the past threads on here. So the children see their parents demonising smokers so often rebel and end up smoking themselves.

I don't think it's because they are thinking of cancer though. It's more the smell, which is horrible and lingers on clothing, and it's not a nice experience for little children to walk through puffs of cigarette smoke. I don't think that's demonising it, it's more to do with the inconvenience/unpleasantness - if it doesn't impact on them in any way I doubt they'd be bothered.

I think demonising it would be if they were into scaremongering that cigarette smoking is majorly harmful to your health. But wait a minute, that's not really scaremongering is it...

So in fact, parents who smoke are doing their dcs a favour, because this will more or less guarantee that their children won't smoke?

I doubt not selling them would help at all. If our government stopped selling them,I would get them imported from Spain. Tax free. The only reason I don't do that now is because the 'smugglers' only bring back the major brands and I can't smoke them, I like lights. If there was no choice though.....

"So in fact, parents who smoke are doing their dcs a favour, because this will more or less guarantee that their children won't smoke?"

In some cases, yes bizarrely. Though without psychic powers that plan may backfire a bit

Just observing that the ones I know who were most judgey over other smokers have teens that have taken up the habit. You know the concept teen like to rebel.

I don't intend to be judgey, some of my best friends are smokers

Can't see it catching on in Sicily or Geneva looking at the number and age range of the smokers i have seen.

I hope it works. Two mums outside DD's school gate yesterday, puffing away over their buggies... ick.

But banning it altogether would be better.

As already said banning the sale of tobacco wouldn't do anything like prohabition didn't do anything for the drinkers in the states or drug users getting their fix here, it would just make it so much cheaper and the nhs whcih is greatly funded by the tax on cigarettes would lose all that money.

honestly the govt is sooo two faced ... lets demonise those who smoke.. lets make them out to be lepers who shouldnt have kids

But lets not ban it because it makes us millions every year

and once they have finished demonising smokers who will be next .. those of us who enjoy takeaway.. or the odd glass of alcohol

We need to say enough to the nanny state!

and no I have never smoked in my life

Frasersmummy, totally agree with you. In fact the've already started on where you can and carn't drink. Soon you won't be able to enjoy a glass of pimms with your picnic as it will be in a public place.

But then the shortsighted people who cheered at the smoking ban didn't think about what else the nanny state will start controlling.

As for those evil yucky mothers who smoke over their buggies at the school gates, those children are recieving nice high doeses of cancer causing chemicals from the exhausts of idiots who can't be bothered to walk to school to pick up their children and decide they must take the car.

As for the nany state, well that's all Labour are good for, they like to meddle in peoples lives, what to eat, when to eat, how much sleep, when to sleep, how much drink, where to drink, how much you can drive, what car and where, my lord you can't even go into school for a hour a couple of days a week and help children read anymore without being vetted !!

Just waiting for the announcement that all prospective parents must be blood tested, mentally assessed and vetted before being allowed to procreate, let alone what delights await the already parents.

Just wrote an essay about this at Uni.

of course not all DCs of smokers smoke but they are twice as likely to, so for me thats a another good reason to never start again.

i smoked heavily for 20 years, I remember wanting to from a young age (I idolised my dad who smokes)

my DS (aged 4) asked me the other day what grandad was holding (a ciggie) and I was so pleased that it was so out of his radius that he didn't know what it was.

Of course it will be impossible to police.

But smoking in cars should be banned immediately, my neighbour smokes with her 2 month in the car

about time - my dd2 is going to stop going to stay overnight at her dads due to his gf smoking in the house - she has told her dad she will see him but not go to his house how sad is that, just because his gf will not smoke outside and would rather effect everyone - her brother is asthmatic but apparently somking doesn't harm him or make it worse and so is his mum

at least now it can be policed, the child can report it....

Someone recently likened passive smoking to me as, walking past a drug addict and him sticking a needle into you and giving you just a little bit of what he just had.

How would that be ok?

Eventually I think smoking will be banned, already its social acceptability has dropped a huge amount.

" Someone recently likened passive smoking to me as, walking past a drug addict and him sticking a needle into you and giving you just a little bit of what he just had. "

That's really a very silly anology.

Drinkers actually do more harm to children of their own and others than smokers do because most smokers no longer smoke around their children.

How many smokers run over a bus stop full of children because they have had one too many cigarettes? Roll over in bed and suffocate their children because they had a pack of ciggies?

And what of all those child binge drinkers pickling themselves into an early grave can we then equate their drinking habits with that of their parents?

Agree with atlantis and with the 'demonising, but still taking the money' which is so hypocritical. And of course if they hadn't made it sound more dangerous than it is they might not be able to justify taking the money. Got to finance those second homes somehow.

The needle thing is just silly. The tiny potential effect of passive smoking which is all the serious scientists found has been passed around and added to until it's a fairy tale about the boogie man.

We might have to ban stepping on cracks in the pavement too as everyone knows that is dangerous.

Disapprove of smoking by all means, but be realistic about it. And don't drive a car if you are worried about poisoning kids.

Has anyone actually noticed Clouddragon's post "Dcs of smokers are twice as likely to smoke"

Or is that too uncomfortable for you to read?