General Chat

TBH I'm sure everyone is well aware of the dangers of smoking, but are they as aware of the dangers of alcohol? or eating fatty foods? Are the government going to be targetting fat people, whose obesity impacts on the NHS? Are fish and chip shops and Greggs to be targetted? I'm sick and fed up of this nanny state.

Since shops have been ordered to put tobacco products behind closed doors, has smoking diminished? Is there any evidence this is happening?

Why doesn't this "nanny" state start doing something about child cruelty or will we continue to have horrific stories of little ones being abused and killed in their own homes?

As I understand it plain packaging means adding the consequences of smoking and related diseases in graphic pictures but larger than they are currently.

AnnC - you repeated exactly the same argument as I have done for many years, especially the driving bit.

And surely it will make things so much easier for the fakers to profit.

I wonder if prices will drop seeing that the expense of printing logos etc will be diminished.

Ooops is that a pig I see flying overhead. ;-) ;-)

The trouble is OFITG is that when people get nasty cancers as a result of smoking they do not like to pay for themselves the tens of thousands of pounds that treatment costs. Ditto with alcohol.

Smokers like to believe that their taxes fund the NHS. There may have been some truth in that a long time ago when there was no treatment for cancer. Today the treatment of smoking and alcohol diseases hoovers up a very significant part of the NHS budget. In the case of alcohol it takes a good slice of the police budget as well not to mention pushing up insurance costs for everybody.

It is not so much a case of the nanny state but rather more one of when you dance it is the one who pays the piper that calls the tune.

It is never too late to grow up.

Yet another example of the nanny state and an act of sheer hypocrisy from a prime minister who employs a leading lobbyist for the tobacco industry as his senior electioneering strategist.

Cigarettes are bad for us; Alcohol is bad for us; Fatty Foods are bad for us; Fizzy drinks are bad for us; Sweets containing sugar are bad for us; Foods containing sugar and salt are bad for us - the list is endless so are they going to introduce plain packaging for all of these?

I like to make my own decisions as to what I eat or drink and whether I smoke or not - it is called choice, my choice. I am 70 and have led a full life including smoking since I was 18 - and more, much more than this, I did it my way ;-)

We have nasty pictures & dire warnings on fag packets here in Spain.
Putting fags in plain packaging will, as Jonesy said, make no difference. We all know what´s inside them.
In fact, since the price hikes over the past 2 or 3 years, many peple have taken to rolling their own. Are they planning on putting loose tobacco & papers into plain packaging as well?.

Cigarette packets in Australia have a photograph of what may happen to you if you smoke. The smallest print on the packet is the brand name. The ciggies don't have the brand name on them either, just a number.

Most smokers I know keep their ciggies in a different container.

Tobacco products will increase by 12.5% on Sunday.

Pics of awful things on ciggie packets.......... why not on alcohol? Why don't they put awful pics on sweets?

More examples of our elected governments treating us like children who need a nanny.

Budgie Rustler - The cigarette case has never gone away as far as I am concerned! Had a silver one given as a present many years ago it is ideal to slip inside a clutch bag. :-D

but this threads not about alcohol, its about cigarettes having plain packets :-S

well said Jonesey - and the reason I connect alcohol with tobacco is that I feel the government has double standards

Ask nurses in A & E who they would rather treat - someone who has smoked a packet of fags, or someone who has drunk a few cans of lager - alcohol abuse is the cause of fights and domestic abuse, yet it's allowed to be advertised everywhere - the cost to the country is mega - police overworked dealing with drunks, and smokers do not jump in their cars after have a fag and kill people - drinkers do though

yeah they probably will, but like i say, any push to stop people smoking is a good one, in my opinion,

Yet another half baked idea.

Young people do not buy their first cigarettes because they like the red, blue or any other colour of the packet, they buy because they want cigarettes. People do not buy the packet, they buy the contents. If all packets are the same colour they will still buy the contents.

;-) ;-) not just a pretty face me :-D :-D

Good idea Snowy - goes off to rummage in my glass recycling bin >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> ;-) :-D

:-D :-D regardless of the packaging people are going to buy them, so it makes no odds, but if it dicourages people to start then thats fantastic,


oh wend, ill save some labled bottles to tranfer it into if they mess with out bottle lol,

I agree with you SnowKitten, but keep the brown paper off my .. ahem, fortified wine please :-D

Sorry to be flippant :-0

Looks like the old cigarette cases may be making a comeback .
Could turn out they might become a fashion accessory like they used to be. :-D :-D

i love how anytime anything about smoking is mentioned drink is brought up lololol, for me there 2 seprate issues,


plain packets will make no odds to the people that smoke, however i do hope it helps stop yougsters starting, i doubt it will but, any little step to stop young or older people start smoking is a step in the right direction