General

Re: '£10 licence to smoke' proposed

macsnafu — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 04:48:49 GMT

Jason Bourne:

ah to be the handicapper general

Diana Moon Glampers?

Re: '£10 licence to smoke' proposed

Jared Stewart — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 06:22:55 GMT

ah to be the handicapper general

Re: '£10 licence to smoke' proposed

graham34 — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 00:26:03 GMT

I blogged about this the other day. In Ireland, it is already illegal to smoke in the workplace, meaning that it is banned in all pubs, clubs and restaurants. Off-licence sales have jumped ahead of pub sales for the first time now and there are reports of many pubs closing down (very hard to measure the market due to pub licensing system):

http://www.airinitiative.com/pub_closures.html

Re: '£10 licence to smoke' proposed

TomG — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 15:14:26 GMT

or even the classic movie THX1138

Re: '£10 licence to smoke' proposed

Inquisitor — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 14:59:53 GMT

Hey, we already pay 125 GBP for a freakin' TV licence, why not 10 GBP for the privilege to smoke? Why not video games too? Eating junk food (they've contemplated this)? Breathing...? Eventually, you'll need a licence to engage in any activity that exceeds your 'needs' and is thereby considered 'wasteful', bringing the Marxist utopia into fruition.

Re: '£10 licence to smoke' proposed

Solredime — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 14:11:34 GMT

ryanpatgray:
I have never been to the UK, are there sales taxes upon the cigaretts themselves? That is what we have in the United States. I am not a smoker but I think both are wrong. In my state (Florida) you are also required to buy a liscence to sell them.

Yeh, the taxes are insane. In addition, if I remember correctly smoking is now banned in public place, as throughout a lot of countries in Europe. Soon they will ban you from smoking at home, in case you set your house on fire or something.

Ridiculous. Simply enforce property rights and the problem is solved. Some bars and restaurants will have smoking allowed, others won't, and then the people that smoke, or don't mind smoking, can go to one restaurant, and the others can go to another where it is disallowed. But putting a flat out ban on all public places, together with huge taxes, and now a license fee is ludicrous.

Re: '£10 licence to smoke' proposed

ryanpatgray — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 22:38:16 GMT

I have never been to the UK, are there sales taxes upon the cigaretts themselves? That is what we have in the United States. I am not a smoker but I think both are wrong. In my state (Florida) you are also required to buy a liscence to sell them.

'£10 licence to smoke' proposed

britainland — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 22:17:17 GMT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7247470.stm

To summarise, people who want to buy cigarettes would have to buy a permit. This would be yet another infringement on individual freedom, yet sadly I can see most people supporting it because of the "smoking is bad" mentality of the nation. It is bad for you, but of course that doesn't mean it should be restricted, and ultimately banned.