Butt Out Stuart Barber: Ban On Cigarette Machines Creates Obesity
“MACHINES threaten to undermine the law,” says Stuart Barber, quoted in the Daily Mirror.
That’s machines for you – always mouthing off about how they’re going to do this and do that.
So why is Mr Barber so bothered? Because he works for the British Heart Foundation, and he is supporting a private member’s bill to outlaw cigarette machines.
The threat to the law, as things stand, is that children can purchase their fags from these machines, who are happy to cough up their contents to anyone who feeds their slot, regardless of age.
You don’t have to be as old as Old Mr Anorak to remember the days when newsagents sold “singles” (individual cigarettes) to children whose pocket money didn’t stretch to a packet of ten “Number 6”. Nowadays, however, kids can easily afford a fiver for 20, and the machines are happy to meet this demand.
No doubt the parliamentary bill will be passed easily, and the vending machines will be removed from playgrounds and classrooms. And then the kids can start doing what everyone does when they give up the fags: pile on the pounds and increase their risk of heart disease.
And then where will we be, Mr Barber?
Posted: 12th, November 2007 | In: Food & Fat, Tabloids Comments (9) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
Comments
November 13th, 2007 at 8:20 am
SOBRANIE!!!!
November 12th, 2007 at 9:04 pm
A friends dad once flew on Lufthansa and came back with packets of three ciggies. He gave them to us. And at weddings the men would get cigars and the women cocktail fags. And the children would nick them, and the cherry brandy…
November 12th, 2007 at 8:35 pm
I can remember ciggies being sold in packets of two (Woodbines, Player’s Weights, etc).
Mind you, that was back in the days when you had to rub two sticks together to light them.
Those were the days, eh?
It…hack, wheeze, gasp, never done me any harm, cough…
November 12th, 2007 at 6:11 pm
I remember rolling my own in my “poor ” periods of youth… and puffing Senior Service .
November 12th, 2007 at 5:25 pm
Messers Barber & Barner (to rhyme with Lambert & Butler)
November 12th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
Aaaah, the single cigarette!
The joy of having enough pocket money for a pack of 5 cadets, the ecstacy of having a pack of 10 Rothmans and I well remember the machines outside the newsagents that sold 10 guards!
Lovely lovely.
Took me many years to beat the habit (managed to stop 4 years ago after blah blah blah years) but I still fantasise about a decent drag on a Marlboro! and yes, I piled on the pounds…
November 12th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
Your credibility (and intelligence) is somewhat undermined when you prove yourself incapable of even writing the name of the person you’re criticising correctly! Are you moaning that Mr Barner or Mr Barber (as you’ve mentioned both in this article) is lobbying for a ban on cigarette vending machines??? FYI- the Daily Mail reported him as MR BARBER .
Who said intellectual journalism was dead??
November 12th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
Kids will always experiment - it’s part of learning/growing up.
What gives this idiot the right to tell people how to live their lives?
November 12th, 2007 at 2:16 pm
Great idea..now all the kiddies can take up dope smoking bought of their friendly neighbour./dealer