Absolutely ridiculous, but brilliant

The UK Government is this week introducing legislation to ban smoking for anyone born in 2009 and after. The idea of the ban is that anyone after this date will never be able to buy cigarettes in the UK. And fines for anyone found supplying them with cigarettes to deter shops from supplying them and ensuring that people will always be asked for ID moving forward.

When listening to a popular radio talk show, the host James O’Brian suggested that the idea was simultaneously ridiculous and brilliant at the same time, and asked listeners to explain their thoughts on this policy.  So, wanting to restart some articles, I thought this would be a good one to start with.

When I was younger both of my parents smoked, I remember sitting in the back of the car with my siblings and having the smoke fill the back of the car and if I complained my parents would just say that they had the window open, which of course just blew all of the smoke to the back of the car.

Back then you could get a “packet of fags” for less than £1.50 and even then, the argument was that they paid too much tax for the government to ever ban cigarettes, and if it was “Really that bad then they would do something” since the 1980’s the price of cigarettes has increased over time at a rate way above inflation. Every budget the Government has added more and more tax to the price as a way to encourage some people to quit smoking, and every year the same argument is rolled out, I will still smoke, I do it because I want to, the government earns too much money from tax to actually ban it.

It is now much more socially unacceptable to smoke, those who smoke are seen as a minority, almost looked down upon, but they still smoke, they are now paying on average about £15 per packet and 10-fold increase in the price.   Packets are unbranded, covered in images of the damage that smoking can inflict on the smokers and warnings about passive smoking, but still people smoke.

I think this is the crux of the issue. no matter what the damage smoking does, no matter the cost to the smoker, or even the cost to society, those hard-core smokers are still smoking, and every year new people start smoking as well.

Any government that introduces a blanket ban would have 1000s of potential voters rallying against them at the next election, not to mention people arguing about the civil liberties of people wanting the right of others to damage themselves to do what they like to their own bodies, the numbers are still big enough to cause a problem for any government brave enough to mandate a full ban.

We also have a large group of lobbyists who represent the tobacco industry who would not want to have their industry banned overnight.  And with the current government which has a large libertarian backing also wanting to reduce the number of laws which restrict people in anyway.

 There is also the issue of the image that in 30 years, there will be 45 year old people hanging outside shops trying to catch the attention of anyone who looks older, asking them to pop into the shop and buy them some cigarettes, that those who are banned wont just find someone else to buy them or the fact that those who are currently underage do not already have a method to get the cigarettes so wont just carry that on until they die.

This ban is not perfect, it may not be possible to 100% stop people from buying cigarettes, some people will still start smoking in 10, 20, or even 30 years, but these numbers will continue to reduce.

But, the cost of cigarettes will eventually increase further as less and less are purchased, manufacturers will increase their own prices to maintain expenses, with some manufacturers maybe even coming out of the business altogether.

But more importantly, one day, there will be no one born before 2009 that smoke, or maybe no one born before 2009 that is even alive. So, although this is a bit of a joke at the moment, this will eventually mean a total ban, with no other government that has to implement it, all they need to do is to leave it in place.

If all other countries followed suit this may result in worldwide ban on all cigarettes. Which would have a massive impact on health care with the reduction of damage caused by people smoking carcinogens and causing health problems.

In conclusion, the whole idea is ridiculous, why should a generation or any future generations be limited in doing something that previous generations have been able to do for centeries? but the idea gets every government off the hook, none of them have to consider a ban in the future and the benefits can be kicked down the road until all the current generations who will be allowed to carry on die off or quit. 

The affect is a total ban whilst eveyone is giggling at the idea of grown adults begging retirees to give them a cigarette or to buy them a packet. 

The current government may have raised a new piece of legislation that actually makes sense.