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Smoking ban for people born after 2008 in the UK agreed

bbc.co.uk

11–20 of 430 posts

Re: Smoking ban for people born after 2008 in the UK agreed

#11
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's short for "agreed upon"

Well they're English, they invented the language. I don't know why they're trampling on it.

headlines often trade legibility for terseness, sometimes a bit too much though :)

EDIT: Headlinese: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headline#Headlinese

Re: Smoking ban for people born after 2008 in the UK agreed

#12
post #6

Drinking has been decided to be totally fine though, no need to ban that - probably because it's unfashionable to smoke, and the kind of people who come up with these laws find it uncouth. It will also be ridiculous in a few years when the UK inevitably decides to legalise marijuana - totally fine to smoke a joint, but don't you dare put any of that tobacco in it!

Drinking doesn’t affect others as direct as smoking does. Most of the indoor smoking bans in the U.S. have been based entirely on the fact that second hand smoke affects the employees who are forced to be there. Further, drinking has a far deeper cultural resonance, so smoking is clearly the lower hanging fruit. And it’s not like the UK has not been taking action against drinking. For example, they’ve imposed minimum…

Drinking affects others much more than smoking does, it's just that it doesn't affect random strangers. In a study of the harms of various substances, alcohol came out on top by a mile for the damage it does to the family and others close to the drinker.

I should qualify the above: it doesn't affect random strangers as often as second-hand smoke does. But drunk driving and drunk violence are a thing, and both can affect anyone.

Re: Smoking ban for people born after 2008 in the UK agreed

#14

This is insanely dumb. Everyone knows that smoking is bad for you. So if people want to do it anyway who cares. I understand the cafe and indoor space bans but not allowing anyone to do it seems stupid. I don’t smoke but UK has really gone off the deep end recently with social controls, what is the point?

Heroin is bad as well and it's forbidden on account of that.

Re: Smoking ban for people born after 2008 in the UK agreed

#15

This is insanely dumb. Everyone knows that smoking is bad for you. So if people want to do it anyway who cares. I understand the cafe and indoor space bans but not allowing anyone to do it seems stupid. I don’t smoke but UK has really gone off the deep end recently with social controls, what is the point?

It's insanely dumb in the same way prohibition was insanely dumb in the US during the twenties.

Re: Smoking ban for people born after 2008 in the UK agreed

#16
There are two separate issues here: 1. will this work (will the UK stop smoking) 2. is this something the UK government should be doing

Setting aside 1 and looking at 2, it seems silly to me to point out that other things (alcohol) that cause problems and are not being restricted. You take the wins where you find them, and the government isn't a magical force that can impose its will on the people arbitrarily. This is obviously the government responding to the general sense of the people (perhaps putting its thumb on the scale). The UK doesn't support cigarettes, so the law gets passed. If someone has a public opinion poll there showing less than 50% support for this, I'd love to see it.

Re: Smoking ban for people born after 2008 in the UK agreed

#17

This is insanely dumb. Everyone knows that smoking is bad for you. So if people want to do it anyway who cares. I understand the cafe and indoor space bans but not allowing anyone to do it seems stupid. I don’t smoke but UK has really gone off the deep end recently with social controls, what is the point?

I, a non-smoker, would like to not walk through clouds of smoke.

Re: Smoking ban for people born after 2008 in the UK agreed

#18
post #13

Alcohol costs the UK 4-5x more than smoking. Coincidentally, it's the upper classes drug of choice. Must be a coincidence though

Sitting in a room with someone drinking doesn't give you cancer.

Just ban smoking indoors then

Re: Smoking ban for people born after 2008 in the UK agreed

#20
post #16

There are two separate issues here: 1. will this work (will the UK stop smoking) 2. is this something the UK government should be doing Setting aside 1 and looking at 2, it seems silly to me to point out that other things (alcohol) that cause problems and are not being restricted. You take the wins where you find them, and the government isn't a magical force that can impose its will on the people arbitrarily. This i…

I think it is also part of a trend. More and more control over people's lives, more and more bans.

Beyond whether something is "bad for you", the key aspect in a free society is whether the State should decide for you (we're entrusted with the right to vote, after all).

Demolition Man has turned out to be the most accurate prediction of the future regarding those issues among all the 90s movies. Quite interesting.

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