Legal Tobacco buying age is raised to 18

Today the legal age at which Tobacco can be purchased has been raised by the government from 16 to 18 years old. Not a bad idea in principal, if it has been implemented to make it harder for under 16's to get hold of cigarettes. However in typical Labour fashion they have pushed through yet another law without thinking it through.

The recruitment figures for the armed forces are already very poor and this new law is only going to make matters worse. Most young men and women join the armed forces at 16 or 17 and stopping them buying cigarettes is not going to help recruitment. Today there are many members of the armed forces who are going to be told they can no longer buy cigarettes. You can serve your country but you can't smoke - marvelous. It would not have been too difficult to put in place an exemption.

This government think it is their job to force you to live your life as they see fit. I can understand banning smoking in some public places, but why ban it in places that have been set up for smokers? Most work places had ventilated smoking rooms in which only smokers ever entered - what harm where they doing to non-smokers? Airports had smoking booths set up, which were completely surrounded by smoke filters - what harm where they causing to non-smokers?

This new law, like the blanket public smoking ban, is just another example of Labour taking the easy option and saying sod you to the public.