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Rationing – coming to a local store near you soon

November 13th, 2011 Posted in Nannying, Nudge Dredd, Personal Freedom by

Just when you thought that the madness could not go any further – it does. Sitting down with a much-needed glass of wine last night to catch up on fellow bloggers activities elsewhere, I casually click over to see what  Dick Puddlecote has to say about the world…. WTF? He tells me that far from the planned plain-packaging ban on all tobacco products being the “pièce de résistance” on the anti-smoking groups activities – they have much more in mind…

RATIONING

Yep – that’s right… rationing. Some anti-smoking nutter (I am sorry but I can find no other word for him) – has a new idea that is filtering into the system…

Under the proposal, a license would give the smoker a right to a limited quota of tobacco supply, say 10 cigarettes a day or 20 cigarettes a day and so on. There is a fee payable to government to give the consumer the right to use tobacco. The more tobacco the license holder pre‑commits to smoke, the higher the license fee involved.

Under the licensing plan consumers would be asked to pass a test, ‘not dissimilar to a driving test’ Chapman stated, to qualify for a right to receive a license to legally purchase tobacco.

After a horribly detailed account of exactly how this odious plan would be implemented – too gross to recount here (go read it) – Dick makes the all too true point

“Remember that anti-tobacco holds global conferences to share notes on their policies. If there comes a time when plain packaging is nodded through by our crashingly gullible Westminster representatives, all guns will be turned away from business, and onto ever more coercive measures to restrict personal consumption

And as I mentioned just a few days ago Where (they) have succeeded with tobacco – so they will follow for alcohol, fast food, chocolate and every other indulgence we enjoy.

Are we really willing to live in a so-called free society where we blindly allow rich government funded groups – that can afford to travel around the world chatting to one another thanks to our tax contributions –  to silently strip away every bit of our free choice we have?

Because. And let me make this as plain as I can – it won’t stop with tobacco.

This has surely gotten way out of control. Dick is also right to say that when they have gone as far as they can attacking legal companies Phillip Morris, Kraft, Coca Cola etc activities, they will turn on us. Our freedoms. Our choices.

6 Responses to “Rationing – coming to a local store near you soon”

  1. Dougy Hunt Says:

    “Where (they) have succeeded with tobacco – so they will follow for alcohol, fast food, chocolate and every other indulgence we enjoy.”

    It will be a brave and foolish government that attempts to limit the consumption of chocolate, by direct or indirect means.

    But, on a serious note, I do not think people will sit idly by and let a government or independent arm of government squeeze away their every indulgence.


  2. Angela Harbutt Says:

    Dougy

    I wish I had your confidence about people not sitting idly by letting government squeeze away every indulgence… but we are already doing that…

    I sat opposite a (somewhat portly) and purportedly intelligent chap at dinner recently who thought that “obesity was out of control” and “something must be done”… I asked him about whether a fat tax was a good idea…he said yes…I asked him if he thought we should licence the number of fast food restaurants… he said yes… I asked him if we should make fizzy drinks only saleable to over 18’s….he ummed and ahhed but eventually said yes (probably)…..

    When i asked him if he thought that alcohol should be subject to significant tax hikes – or that supermarkets should be banned from selling alcohol …he said no – absolutely not!! Why? because he didn’t want HIS indulgences touched thank you very much. And boy could he give me chapter and verse on why responsible drinkers should not be penalised because of the actions of the irresponsible.

    This seems to be the problem. Everyone sits back thinking its ok for other peoples freedoms to be sliced away “for the greater good of society” – they don’t care what happens to fizzy drinks because they don’t drink them – and will only get really motivated when the government comes after their freedom of choice.

    If the government came out and said “you all smoke too much..drink to much and eat the wrong food – so here are 20 policies to get you ignorant prols healthier” we would collectively jump up and say NO ..Way too far!…. but just like the frog immersed into cold water and slowly heated up – by attacking our freedoms one by one – no one notices much, or cares much, as long as it doesn’t affect them at the time.

    As individuals we are a disparate set of people getting on with our own lives as best we can – facing a highly organised and ludicrously well funded network of lobby groups that share ideas and information and techniques on a daily basis. The use shock and awe,they quote “science”,they twist the statistics – and they are VERY good at it. Against that “army” we don’t stand a chance – unless we unite on one issue – even an issue that we may not care particularly about but see the direction of travel – and say NO. Unless that happens the government will be led by the nose into “squeezing away” every bit of choice we have.


  3. Tom Papworth Says:

    Well, it’s a great day for us non-smokers.

    Once smoking is rationed, we can all go out and buy our ration of cigarettes, safe in the knowledge that there will be a thriving unofficial market for tabacco products. It’ll be a sort of cap-and-trade policy, with the windfall profits falling to those of us who don’t smoke, while you smokers are gauged.

    If this doesn’t satisfy your cravings, of course, the underworld will be happy to step in, by placing disaffected youth on street corners with bags of illegally imported tabacco products, many of them counterfeit and so of dubious quality and content. These youth will defend their sales areas not with marketing and price wars but with violence and firearms.

    It will be a victory for a new, healthier Britain.


  4. Junican Says:

    @ Tom Papworth

    How do, Tom.
    I was in the air force in the 1960s. We had cigarette rations (x number of coupons per week). My ‘mate’ smoked only occasionally and he gave me his coupons. He did not charge, but his gift was worth many a pint. So, yes, there would certainly be a market for coupons. Do you know who suggested this magnificent idea? – A ‘professor of history of science named Robert N Proctor from Stanford Uni, USA. Erm…did I say professor? Let me check…Yes A PROFESSOR! And did I say Stanford Uni? Let me check…Yes STANFORD UNI, USA. We can see that the quality of Tobacco Control zealots is indeed very high.
    But there is one thing upon which I would take issue with you, and that is ‘counterfeit’ tobacco. The word ‘counterfeit’ with regard to tobacco is a word which has been introduced by ASH and the Health Dept. Now, please tell me how on Earth tobacco can be ‘counterfeited’. What does that mean? It is senseless since tobacco is tobacco. You cannot really imitate it. It either is or is not. In any case, tobacco plants are so easy to grow that there is simply no point in messing about – it is easier to grow tobacco plants than pretend tobacco plants. And tobacco plants have huge leaves. What is the point of substituting anything else? What is counterfeit tobacco?
    Just another propaganda ploy by ASH and the Heath Dept’s unknown and un-named dictators.
    I have just created a cigarette with half tobacco and half tea bag dust. It was foul. How could any ‘entrepreneur’ who wanted to make money do so by selling ‘junk’ cigarettes?
    Watch out for the ASH and Health Dept propaganda – it is seriously bad for your health.


  5. Sara Scarlett Says:

    Articles like these make me happy I now live in Virginia…


  6. Angela Says:

    Junican

    I can’t answer for what Tom had in mind – but let me give you my view…..

    As I see it there are genuine cigs/roll your own tobacco that are, say, stolen in the UK or smuggled from spain or portugal (basically where tax is lower) but are – to be clear “genuine” (made by legal companies)..

    “Counterfeit tobacco” is a catch-all term used to describe both ready rolled cigs and rolling tobacco that is FAKE and comes from the East …. mainly China (or eastern european countries) — never touched by legal tobacco manufacturers…. this stuff is full of mouse shit, huge levels of lead, arsenic, cadmium , and other heavy metal toxins….

    I dont know WHY criminal gangs stick the nasties in – maybe they are just perverse???? Maybe it stabilises the product.. i dont know… its just that the siezed stuff that gets analysed by the (govt and tobacco) laboratories simply identifies that fake fags and fake rolling tobacco have all this extra extra nasty stuff in them that isnt in the genuine brands….. (my understanding is that rolling tobacco is even worse than fake rolled cigs btw).

    They are then stuffed into to fake packs that pretend to be “real brands” ….. These are “produced” in tens of thousands of filthy sweatshops run by criminal gangs and come through British ports by the container load. Billions of these things distributed through the gangs across the country.

    In 2000 it was estimated that 80% of siezed tobacco contraband were “genuine” brands (stolen/smuggled – but made by the tobacco manufacturers)… by 2010 less than 10% of siezed tobacco products were genuine.

    All this really nasty fake stuff gets distributed through criminal gangs – selling to kids as well as adults indiscrimately in street markets and car boot sales, in pubs, through work, at universites etc etc….

    Weirdly the ONLY area where GOVT (in this case HM customs and revenue) seems willing to talk to tobacco manufacturers is in the area of “counterfeit” tobacco.