What does the English "Smoke Free Target of 2030" Mean?

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K.E. Powell

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 20, 2022
588
2,167
37
West Virginia
I thought I would do something novel and see what the laws and legislation, if any, were actually being pushed in the U.K. to meet this ambitious goal for 2030.

Basically, this is very old news. This whole thing started in 2017 when the UK government through the Dept. of Health and Social Care published its report on a "Tobacco Control Plan for England." It's roughly 32 pages and is a brief read, but the tl;dr version: they want people to smoke less, especially the pregnant and those with mental health issues. To achieve this, they are advocating for maintaining high taxes on tobacco, better cessation support for smokers (and the focus is on cigarette smokers; again, folks, no one CARES about pipe smokers in these things because they are not a big enough group to focus on), and increasing public education on the dangers of tobacco.

In other words, they are going to do the same shit they have been doing since the Thatcher administration. Anti-smoking lobbying groups are pushing the UK government to do more, because their legislature, in their opinion at least, has not taken the DHS report seriously enough, and it is believed they will miss their smoke-free goals by at least seven years if current trends continue. In other words, the government keeps publishing reports about what they are going to do and then don't do it. Yes, I know, I am utterly shocked too.

So, not quite 1984 or a Chinese psy-op. Taxes will remain high, but so far, it seems Boris Johnson isn't going to kick down doors and confiscate everyone's fags.
 

georged

Lifer
Mar 7, 2013
5,994
16,165
So, not quite 1984 or a Chinese psy-op. Taxes will remain high, but so far, it seems Boris Johnson isn't going to kick down doors and confiscate everyone's fags.

Authoritarianism has NEVER come about overnight. Those who want to install it rely on human nature to surrender freedoms/rights/etc. in small increments and make concessions in small increments.

"It's not worth fighting over this small thing", is the thought process.

Then, when people realize the extent of what they've conceded/allowed/given up/etc.---when it IS worth fighting over---it's too late. Doing so is literal suicide. So they once again stand down.

The biological mechanism that causes this response is as old as Man, and has been exploited since day one.

The funny-sad part is it's so powerful that people can't act differently even after being made aware of the mechanism, or actually seeing it happening around them.

What DO they do? Engage in "soft denial" and shift the subject away from reality as quickly as possible. (It's the mental equivalent of a warm soft Teddy Bear)
 

brian64

Lifer
Jan 31, 2011
10,025
16,066
One day paper & coin money will be gone. Once it is, doing ANYTHING that the ruling class doesn't want little people doing will be trackable.

It will also work the other way. There will be all sorts of things that MUST be done, or else.

Tobacco is the merest gnat. A good early-days opportunity to tune the mechanisms of monitoring and control. The scary stuff is still waiting offstage.

"Central Bank Digital Currency is the most comprehensive, far-reaching, authoritarian social control mechanism ever devised. Its "interoperability" will enable the CBDCs issued by various national central banks to be networked to form one, centralised global CBDC surveillance and control system."


PART 2:

 

DeerparkDays

Starting to Get Obsessed
Oct 30, 2022
206
746
Dannevirke, New Zealand
The rising oceans and impending climate change will destroy all smoking everywhere so the safest thing to do is send me all your pipe tobacco for immediate cryogenic storage on the moon (properly humidified and climate controlled) to await your evacuation pod arrival. I will present you with a verified receipt and an absolute guarantee that I won’t smoke any of it whatsoever and will faithfully deliver it to you at moon base one in a timely fashion. PM me for details and shipping instructions. Those silly laws won’t be an issue at all with this guaranteed plan of action.
Man this had me literally laughing like a lunatic here in my garage! Cheers for the cheer on this wet chilly evening!
 

Andriko

Can't Leave
Nov 8, 2021
384
945
London
I thought I would do something novel and see what the laws and legislation, if any, were actually being pushed in the U.K. to meet this ambitious goal for 2030.

Basically, this is very old news. This whole thing started in 2017 when the UK government through the Dept. of Health and Social Care published its report on a "Tobacco Control Plan for England." It's roughly 32 pages and is a brief read, but the tl;dr version: they want people to smoke less, especially the pregnant and those with mental health issues. To achieve this, they are advocating for maintaining high taxes on tobacco, better cessation support for smokers (and the focus is on cigarette smokers; again, folks, no one CARES about pipe smokers in these things because they are not a big enough group to focus on), and increasing public education on the dangers of tobacco.

In other words, they are going to do the same shit they have been doing since the Thatcher administration. Anti-smoking lobbying groups are pushing the UK government to do more, because their legislature, in their opinion at least, has not taken the DHS report seriously enough, and it is believed they will miss their smoke-free goals by at least seven years if current trends continue. In other words, the government keeps publishing reports about what they are going to do and then don't do it. Yes, I know, I am utterly shocked too.

So, not quite 1984 or a Chinese psy-op. Taxes will remain high, but so far, it seems Boris Johnson isn't going to kick down doors and confiscate everyone's fags.

A level-headed post by someone who's actually bothered to read the policy paper. I do agree that tyranny comes from lots of small things that don't seem worth fighting, but frankly we ware way past that point now with smoking. In practice the 2030 thing is just a paper saying the government should keep doing what they are already doing.
 

Zamora

Can't Leave
Mar 15, 2023
403
1,187
Olympia, Washington
As far as I can tell, the goal is to have smokers (who knows what kind) be less than 5% of the population by 2030, a target that is already expected to be missed, and at any rate, smokers are already down to less than 15%. In practice, for us pipesmokers, I doubt it will make much difference as I suspect the pipe smoking population is already tiny, and fairly consistent in number over the long term.

I can't see tobacco ever being completely banned as the government likes to have a tiny number of highly addicted people paying excess amounts of tax whilst being belittled, badgered and berated every puff.
That's what it means in most countries that have set a smoke free by x year goal. Personally if everybody were to stop smoking cigs I'd be all for that, as long as pipes and cigars aren't taken down with cigs then good riddance. That said I strongly oppose measures targeting cigs (beyond stuff like indoor public smoking bans), they're usually overreach and set precedent for targeting of pipes and cigars. Plus the anti smoking losers will never be satisfied until all use of nicotine has ceased.

I'm with you on the idea they'll never outright ban it because they love those sweet tax revenues. It's telling that sin taxes are so rampant even though they don't do shit to curb smoking. If sin taxes worked then poor people wouldn't smoke cigarettes at a much higher rate than middle and upper class people. Will the government work to improve material conditions for the poor in order to address the root problem of why so many smoke cigarettes? Of course not. Now with cigars and pipes sin taxes absolutely do put a damper on sales, though even in countries with the most draconian taxes on them you'll see people who still smoke them.
 
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Zamora

Can't Leave
Mar 15, 2023
403
1,187
Olympia, Washington
NZ has the smokefree date of 2025. One of things this meant is they stopped the ordering of tobacco through the postal service in 2020.
Damn then it must be pretty difficult to get any pipe tobacco unless you live in big city. Some European countries don't allow that either but usually it's pretty easy to just take a day trip to a neighboring country and stock up.
 
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gawithhoggarth

Can't Leave
Dec 26, 2019
353
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47
Kendal, UK
www.gawithhoggarth.co.uk
Pretty much what others have already stated. Its part of an overall drive to stop smoking, aimed at cigarettes, but pipe smoking and other tobacco products will also be caught by any legislation. But its misleading to say smoke free by 2030. The aim (which will never be reached) is to get down to 5% from something like 9% now. But that does not sound great to the public. And yes vaping is being pushed and every high street has many vape shops now. Our health service pushes vapes and you can even get them on the health service for free. A great little earner for the companies tied in with this.

The figures mean nothing as higher taxes etc just pushes smoking underground and fuels the illegal import trade, which has always been massive. Tobacco and cigarettes are now brought in as a nice earner and side line for those criminal gangs and basically cartels shifting hard drugs into the country. Think Albanian gangs a major part of this now, having infiltrated the prison trade.