clipped from www.independent.co.uk “Smokers’ groups and manufacturers have condemned government proposals to clamp down on cigarette vending machines and packets of 10 in an attempt to stop children and young people smoking.”

The NannyNazis are rapidly running out of ideas in their campaign to “de-normalise“ smoking.

These latest ideas are just fucking daft. They won’t have any effect on youth smoking, other than to make it more appealing. It’ll be a challenge to get your hands on a packet of fags - and the guy with the fags will get “respect”.

I’ve never once said that smoking is a good thing, indeed I think we should use all the available existing laws to stop young people from buying tobacco.

We have good enough laws in place - just enforce them. Any retailer found to be selling fags to minors should lose their licence to sell tobacco - no questions, no appeals just take the licence away. And the same goes for drink, by the way.

Scotland has increased the legal age to buy tobacco to 18 - good I say.  But once you reach 18 then you’re free to choose whether you smoke or not - in exactly the same way you decide to climb mountains or not or drive very fast motor bikes or not.

These are all risky activities but we should all have the choice about which risks we want to take in life.

As far as banning fag-machines is concerned I couldn’t give a fuck! They’re a complete rip-off anyway and I’d be delighted to see the greedy bastards who operate them out of business.

No branding? So what, I don’t smoke the packet so a plain white one is fine by me. Actually leaves more room to doodle on it - unless they cover it with pictures of dying people or diseased organs.

Many great inventions started as a scribble on the back of a fag packet!

Hiding them under the counter? Sounds OK to me…

…Or am I supposed to feel like a dirty old pervert when I go into a shop and surreptitiously ask for 20 in a plain bag please!

This is de-normalisation at work.

So no, I’m not one of the pro-smokers complaining about the latest ravings. I don’t care - these measures are bound to be completely pointless and will do nothing to stop youngsters seeing smoking as ‘cool’.

And anyway, how will they roll a decent joint with out some baccy.

Maybe they’ll just skin-up with pure grass instead - looks like it’ll be easier for them to get a hold of than tobacco.

…and I hope you die soon.

The ink on the new (pointless but it’s another law, isn’t it?) anti-ageism law is barely dry and the first nutters have appeared driven by “legal advice”

A company has banned it’s employees from having a whip-round to get a card for a colleague’s birthday in case the birthday boy/girl is offended by the card and decides to sue the company using the new legislation. They claim to have done this following legal advice - who the fuck is their lawyer? and are they seriously paying for this kind of advice?

God, I despair sometimes - is everyone a potential victim of some kind of offence or other?

Come on people, GROW UP! Half the fun of having to be a wage slave is the opportunity to take the piss out of each other whenever possible. Why are the NannyNazis trying to take all the fun out of life? What happened to giving as good as you get?

So, I think it should be compulsory to get as offensive a card as you can for every work-place related event. Where I work there seems to be an epidemic of marriage as the “stump up for Johnny & Jenny’s gift” sheets seem to come round every bloody day. Who the fuck are Johnny & Jenny anyway!

Anyway, I’m an old sod and I don’t consider my age something to get offended about - I can’t stop getting older!

What I do object to is discrimination in the workplace that stops older people getting a job and then keeping it as long as they like. At 52 I might as well be 92 as far as some employers are concerned - not that I’d stop a 92 year old having a job if they want one and can still perform!. My current employer, by the way, does not behave like this and peoples’ experience is valued - unusual I admit, but I think this attitude will remain unusual despite this pointless law.