The 2015 Popularity Contest (aka UK General Election )

[Ashtonian]

Fair point, I hadn't thought of that. How big is the counterfeit ciggy market (I appreciate by its nature its hard to measure)? It would be interesting to know just what prompts people to start smoking in the first place. Instinctively it seems as though packaging would be relatively low down the list of reasons, but I'm sure someone has studied this.

Personally i have no idea about that market, never shopped anywhere but retial outlets when i smoked. But my father in law goes to a shop that sells some, or whatever they are. they are cheap and no known brand to me anyway.

The packaging idea is based on the fact that a child/teenager sees the snazzy packet of ciggies and is drawn to it as an appealing thing to do. Now i am not sure about yourself but i have never come accross someone who was drawn to smoking because of the packets. It is a false conception that a case study with children has threw out just because they probably pressed a voting panel in favour of smoking the fun looking ciggies.

Smoking is down to image of doing it, the cool side of things and most importantly because your friends are doing it. Nothing else significantly attracts young people to smoking and for each person who takes it up it is because their friend is doing it. That friend either carries the chain or sees a parent smoking and said parents are either lax about it or unaware of their child smoking.

even as a former smoker i have a lot of opinions of the horrible way the tobbacco industry is handled by governments and its customers. But none of that is relevant lol Point is people will still smoke whatever the packet looks like because it is cool to do at a young age, and for every person who gives up for the packet then 100 more will get ill/health issues from buying the newly flooded counterfeit products that are for sale.

 

[Ashtonian]

Why can't they just leave people alone? What is it their problem if people want to smoke and die it's legal isn't it? Massive nanny state in action. Next, they'll be saying people can't smoke in their own homes you wait and see. When questioned why they'll give the usual reply THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!

Personally mate, and i said this when i smoked is that they should just ban them. Many many opinions on the matter but they just put so much arsey rules in place for smokers that they may as well go the whole hog and ban tobacco and then job done.

I support smoking in public areas and in a car with kids etc as being banned as yes for health issues that is correct to do. but beyond that it is just paying lip service to anybody who is outrages about the issue

 

[red1]

Personally mate, and i said this when i smoked is that they should just ban them. Many many opinions on the matter but they just put so much arsey rules in place for smokers that they may as well go the whole hog and ban tobacco and then job done.

I support smoking in public areas and in a car with kids etc as being banned as yes for health issues that is correct to do. but beyond that it is just paying lip service to anybody who is outrages about the issue

I agree if they just came out and said they want to ban smoking that would make more sense than saying it's allowed and then making it as difficult as possible to smoke. C'mon man, how can you say people can't smoke in their own cars because of kids, naturally then people won't be able to smoke in their own homes for the same reason. If kids are at the forefront of government policy then might as well ban parents from having sex in their own homes cos the kids might hear them, might be a traumatic experience for them you know Or even worse, might accidentally walk in on them!

 

[degsy]

Is there a vote compass we can test our selves on or is it too early yet

 

[Joey66]

Is there a vote compass we can test our selves on or is it too early yet

The Austrailian ciggie packaging - what is forgotten they almost doubled the price of them at the time!
All I will hire tee if the plain ciggie packets are easy to forge illegal tobacco dealers will be made up and lost tax revenue with explode!

 

[degsy]

Personally mate, and i said this when i smoked is that they should just ban them. Many many opinions on the matter but they just put so much arsey rules in place for smokers that they may as well go the whole hog and ban tobacco and then job done.

I support smoking in public areas and in a car with kids etc as being banned as yes for health issues that is correct to do. but beyond that it is just paying lip service to anybody who is outrages about the issue

when I see a death certificate that actually states, as a medical fact...Cause of Death - Passive smoking... until then 'koff

my gran lived to be 95 and smoked Woodbines ( woodies ffs ) all her life, but we all have to be anti smoking nazis for poor old Roy castle at the other end of the bell curve

not convinced

ps I don't smoke but agree with Voltaire

 

[Ashtonian]

I agree if they just came out and said they want to ban smoking that would make more sense than saying it's allowed and then making it as difficult as possible to smoke. C'mon man, how can you say people can't smoke in their own cars because of kids, naturally then people won't be able to smoke in their own homes for the same reason. If kids are at the forefront of government policy then might as well ban parents from having sex in their own homes cos the kids might hear them, might be a traumatic experience for them you know Or even worse, might accidentally walk in on them!

I meant smoking in cars with kids in them. fine with no kids.

 

[Ashtonian]

when I see a death certificate that actually states, as a medical fact...Cause of Death - Passive smoking... until then 'koff

my gran lived to be 95 and smoked Woodbines ( woodies ffs ) all her life, but we all have to be anti smoking nazis for poor old Roy castle at the other end of the bell curve

not convinced

ps I don't smoke but agree with Voltaire

Passive smoking has been proven to have adverse health risks though mate. Its not like the clutching at straws vapour from e cigs and trying to find anything wrong with that. You are burning tobacco which is bad for you, obviously burning anything will have harmful smoke coming off it, so im sure there is plenty of proof out there for this.

but people are different, one person may have smoking related problems others wont. I used to have a coughing fit if i went outside and it was cold out, but im guessing the next smoker in the street didnt have that problem, and i never had a smokers cough, but others do. Point is good on your nan for living until a good age, but another person smoking as much from the same time might not have lived to see 50.

 

[The Cowboy]

I agree if they just came out and said they want to ban smoking that would make more sense than saying it's allowed and then making it as difficult as possible to smoke. C'mon man, how can you say people can't smoke in their own cars because of kids, naturally then people won't be able to smoke in their own homes for the same reason. If kids are at the forefront of government policy then might as well ban parents from having sex in their own homes cos the kids might hear them, might be a traumatic experience for them you know Or even worse, might accidentally walk in on them!

Can't ban smoking - too many kickbacks from the tobacco industry, plus all the VAT/duty. Got to try and reduce the smokers to take the weight off the NHS.

 

[chicoazul]

There's a strong correlation between UKIP voters and Martinez Out voters.

 

[red1]

Can't ban smoking - too many kickbacks from the tobacco industry, plus all the VAT/duty. Got to try and reduce the smokers to take the weight off the NHS.

Smoking makes more in taxes than it costs the NHS though.

 

[rascal]

I'll let you all pick the bones out of this one...

Ban the jobless from driving to ease congestion, Ukip candidate says

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/pol...g-to-ease-congestion-Ukip-candidate-says.html

So basically he wants everyone who claims some sort of benefit to be banned from driving. It's quite ironic that he's almost of pensionable age.

 

[Jxg]

In case people haven't seen it, here's a nice cherry picking of the Green Party's policies. Free money for everyone, no more military (we won't get attacked, it's impossible in this day and age) and fewer nasty difficult useless science subjects in school, art and drama are way funner guys!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/pol...nce-tax-the-Green-Party-plan-for-Britain.html

THE CITIZENS’ INCOME

The flagship policy is an unconditional, non-withdrawable income of £71 a week for everyone living in Britain “as a right of citizenship”, regardless of wealth or whether they are seeking work.

Benefits and the tax-free personal allowance will be abolished, and top-ups given for people with children or disabilities, or to pay rent and mortgages. No-one will see a reduction in benefits, and most will see a substantial increase. Parents will be entitled to two years’ paid leave from work.

The policy will enable people to “choose their own types and patterns of work”, and will allow people to take up “personally satisfying and socially useful work”.

It will cost somewhere between £240-280 billion a year – more than double the current health budget, and ten times the defence budget. Those costs will be off-set by some reduction to the welfare bill, through the replacement of jobseekers’ allowance.



These people are actually fools and although they're never going to have any sizeable influence on the way the UK is run (thank goodness!) they still worry me. The people who vote for them worry me even more; how addled do you have to be?

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Not quite sure what this forlock tugging article has to do with the UK general election. Was it in response to my previous post?

No, that and the study on microloans were in response to Esk's about poverty reduction/inequality on a global scale. I'm not at all convinced its right, but there's a lot to suggest that the Davos crowd regard themselves as a Plato like enlightened elite whose job it is to help society. I don't think that's how things work at all, but we have to look at the big picture don't we?

I'm not sure we can say state aid has worked (globally). The study I mentioned suggests microloans (ie a bottom up effort) has changed things 'that' much. You seem to be suggesting that private aid isn't working either.

What then is the answer? If nothing else it reflects just how difficult this is.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I'll let you all pick the bones out of this one...

Ban the jobless from driving to ease congestion, Ukip candidate says

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/pol...g-to-ease-congestion-Ukip-candidate-says.html

So basically he wants everyone who claims some sort of benefit to be banned from driving. It's quite ironic that he's almost of pensionable age.

Boggles the mind where on earth they find some of these people from, and what's more, what makes them think they would make even remotely sensible candidates.