Former Chancellor George Osborne has become the latest British politician to call for a smoking ban. The architect of the sugar tax wants the UK to follow the lead of New Zealand, which will prohibit anyone born after 2008 from purchasing cigarettes.
‘You basically phase it out. Of course you’re going to have lots of problems with illegal smoking, but you have lots of problems with other illegal activities,’ Osborne said. ‘It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try and ban them and police them and make it less readily available. I thought that was a compelling public health intervention.’
You have to admire his flawless logic. Prohibition has proven so successful for recreational drugs; so successful that even senior politicians have admitted to using Class A substances. So successful that it fuels international criminal gangs and knife crime across London’s streets. It’s also not like Britain’s police are struggling to tackle violent crime and need more distractions.
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