General Chat

Maggie, that's my late nght snack out the window!

xx

Hi Maggie

In the highly unlikely event that I'll ever "gob off" - at least I'll have the wherewithall to cushion the blow!

Sue x

1. What did people die of before smoking took the blame
2. What will people die of when there is no smoking.
3. What will the government tax to raise comparable revenue when there is no smoking


And finally to all those who advocate 'giving up".

I do not smoke, I have never smoked. However OH has, always has. When he was a teenager a doctor told him to "take up smoking it will help with your asthma". (Go figure that one in light of today's philosophies). Yes he had asthma before he smoked.

He has tried to give it up. This last time he survived without a cigarette for six months. Nope I survived for six months living with a monster. He is smoking again and is still alive because i didn't murder him. His doctor's told him he would be dead before he reached 21 because of his asthma. He is now approaching 70.

Who knows what is right and what is wrong. Weight of scientific proof is against smoking. Making them more expensive just penalises families. Stop their manufacture and supply completely. Yeah in your dreams. Why tell someone to give them up and still have them available. Can you imagine the economic crisis which would ensue if the entire tobacco trade was wiped off the world's economy. I say again what is the point in making insignificant gestures to improve the health of communities if the very item which is derimental to that improvement is available to everyone.

I won't say I am pleased my OH decided to resume smoking. I will selfishly admit my life is a lot more pleasant now he has.

Quoting Yes Minister

Jim Hacker: "Humphrey, we are talking about 100,000 deaths a year."

Sir Humphrey: "Yes, but cigarette taxes pay for a third of the cost of the National Health Service. We are saving many more lives than we otherwise could because of those smokers who voluntary lay down their lives for their friends.

Smokers are national benefactors."


Which says all you need to hear about hypocrisy. Ban 'em, by all means. But be prepared to "cough up"



Sue x

Good point, Sue (most 'good points' come from satire).

Auntie Sherlock, I once knew a lad who couldn't say a full sentence in one breath. He took up smoking - and found he could be quite vouble!!.
We got so peed off with him, we suggested he went to the doctor. Doctor diagnosed asthma and told him to give up smoking - peace was restored, he could no longer utter a full sentence - true!!!

It was once believed smoking 'controlled' the breathing.

I also know a lady who gave up smoking after many years, she now spends her life breathing in inhalers.

Yes, I smoke, but I don't drive so there is no chance of me either killing someone with my car or forcing others to breathe in the toxic fumes (much worse than fag smoke)
I also don't smoke in front of minors. When my children were young I smoked in another room.
The fact that my grandchildren follow me to the back doorstep for a chat is unavoidable - my house - I smoke.
I don't smoke in other people's cars unless they do - and never with a child on board.

Yet I'm still (apparently) scum!!

However, I never fraudulently get money from the general public - because I'm not a smug self-satisfied moralising hypocritical lying politician trying to run the lives of others!

There is also the impact the addictive drugs contained in the cigarettes have on the brain.

You can not fill your system with these drugs for decades and then expect to withdraw them from your system without some repercussions.

No matter how successful you are at quitting your brain will still crave the sensation provided by the smoke. The younger you are when you try to quit, the easier it will be. Or better still don't start in the first place. That is where the emphasis of the quit smoking campaign should be! Don't start!

One really has to wonder when they first brought the tobacco leaf back from overseas if Her Majesty had said, "Oh yuk, that's horrible stu ff, I'm not having that in my kingdom, chuck it all overboard'.


Oh well perhaps we'd all be going around smoking from glass bottles.

In that case - I'll carry on! Don't want to be on inhalers.

One gran (heavy smoker) lived until she was 80 - full life etc. - died 'on the hoof' - actually was fundraising for kidney disease - which she thought she had - but didn't!!
(Perhaps she should have been fundraising for liver transplants - the amount she drank - but her liver was fine too!)

Other gran (non-smoker/small drinker) lived until she was 99 - sat at home all day, ended up in a home - miserable final 5 years of life.

I know which I'd choose!

Wow, great debate!

A number of things.... personally I wouldnt buy a 2nd hand car that smelt of cigarette smoke. I have kids and the cancer causing particle hang around for ages in the interior of a car. For the same reason if (which will never happen) I was ever to buy a 2nd hand house I would avoid one that smelled of smoke.

Technically all vehicles that are used for business purposes cant be smoked in..... cabs, works vans, drs/police cars etc as they are a place of work.

I used to smoke and Im prob one of the worst of the ex-smoker brigade......... I hate it! I used to refuse to stay in my mums house until she stopped smoking in the house. I trully believe it one of the reasons her house has taken so long to sell!!

BTW people have been prosecuted for drinking/eating an apple in their car. One handed driving is illegal.... the prob is theres not enough police on the ground to enforce the law.......... another pet subject..... quickly hopping off soap box now!!! LOL

T.x

That is one win I have had. OH smokes outside. Just before we repainted the house I showed him the brown substance which ran down the window frames when I applied a cleanser. After we repainted he decided to keep his smoking outside.

You may be aware that prisoners regard cigarettes as currency, but did you also know............
"During World War II (1939-1945), cigarette sales are at an all time high. Cigarettes were included in a soldier's C-Rations (like food!). Tobacco companies sent millions of cigarettes to the soldiers for free, and when these soldiers came home, the companies had a steady stream of loyal customers. "

seems to me like an exercise in irony - "I wouldn't put my children into a car that smelled of smoke".

Of course people die of smoking. And maybe - just maybe - children suffer from sitting in the passenger seats of cars where someone has once smoked.

But, just as people definitely die of smoking, so they also definitely die because of the car. And not just in traffic accidents. They also die because of the noisome fumes that cars inflict.

A bit like passive smoking, in fact.

I choose to smoke. You choose to drive. We each exercise our own choices.
That's what freedom of choice is all about.

Sue x

My view exactly , Sue.
But why are cigarette smokers castigied?
If we are expected to stop - surely car drivers should be stopped from belching out fumes.


...but this would involve making public transport :
a) affordable
and
b) 'joined up'
also involve making car drivers give up their 'freedom'.

s*d the smokers' freedom!!

Quite Maggie

I'm not sure where you live, but here in the north east, public transport is affordable and accessible

I know that, because I travel literally hundreds of miles a week by bus.

colleagues regularly tell me that they don't know how I do it - I tell them it's easy. Bottom line - they don't like having the freedom to go where they like, when they like, taken away.

That's their choice, of course.

Sue x

What is public transport? One bus a day at 8.30 and the return at 5.00. Can you get on if you are less able bodied?..no.

In rural areas such as where I live there is zero chance of getting people out of cars and onto buses. Our nearest train is 38 miles away and you pay an arm and a leg for the privilege of travelling on it!

Sue x

Hi Supercrutch

My friend lives in the depths of the Cotswolds, so I know what you say is true.

I also live in a very rural area (but deep in the north east) .

Lack of public transport has little to do with rurality - or otherwise - and more to do with how your chosen local government has decided to spend the money it gets from Whitehall (ie you and me) . If you want a decent public transport system, then lobby your local council!

What's a pound or two on your council tax?

Sue x

As my name suggests - I live in Winchester. Last bus from the centre of town to where I live - 1.5 miles from the centre is 6:50 pm!! (Would also like to point out that a journey of 1.5 miles costs £1.05!)
Okay, I can walk it - but don't like to when it's dark . Definitley discourages me from going out to events, evening classes etc.
It feels a bit like a 'curfew'.