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No they aren’t you bloody loon

Tobacco companies will be hit by tough new laws, including a ban on menthol cigarettes and smaller packs, following a vote in the European Parliament.


Consumers
will be hit by tough new laws. For example, the wankstains in Brussels have decided to make menthol cigarettes illegal. This is a curb, a constraint, upon the freedom and liberty of consumers.

The correct headline for this piece should therefore be:

Illiberal cunts steal freedom

But then, given that we are indeed talking about the European Parliament that doesn’t really pass the man bites dog test for news, does it?

10 thoughts on “No they aren’t you bloody loon”

  1. Ah, but Tim you’re clearly forgetting that no one wants to smoke, and no one enjoys smoking, and if it weren’t for the eeeeeeeeeeeevil tobacco companies getting them hooked by enticing them with shiny packaging then they wouldn’t smoke.

    So clearly this will hit the companies. Oh, and HMRC.

    I’m sure menthol cigs can be smuggled as easily as the ordinary sort.

    hehe. Although I suppose the difference is that you will be able to tell if someone is smoking smuggled fags if they’re menthol. Mind you, given how little plod appears to care about eg people smoking spliffs then I doubt this will matter.

  2. Of course the rozzers don’t care about smuggling, it’s the Customs who have the obsession with booze n’ fags. I travel regularly between UK and Austria and transport all sorts of strange things backwards and forwards, but all they’re interested in at Dover is whether I have a stash of BandH in the back.
    Same goes for the German Zollpolizei. I am often stopped just inside the Bavarian border and asked if I have any fags in the boot. Although I saw on telly once, where a chap was stopped for smuggling coffee. He had bought it cheap in Holland and was going to use it in his works canteen in Gemany.

  3. I really don’t get the ban on low-tar and menthol cigarettes. Sure they’re not good for you, but they’re not as bad as the full-blown ones in terms of tar content. Ditto the slim cigarettes my wife smokes.

    I think the argument is that people might think smoking menthol cigarettes is somehow harmless and okay, so best to force everyone to smoke the bad ones and accept death is inevitable if you continue. Or something. But it is a bit like pulling low-alcohol beer off the shelves, pointing everyone towards the vodka, and telling the world they want people to lead healthier lives.

  4. The banning-menthol concept has been popular among bansturbatory sorts in the US for a while, because (for some odd reason) almost everyone who smokes menthols in the US is black and black people still have much higher smoking rates, so *obviously* the evil menthols are the problem. Which is crazy logic, but at least sort-of logic.

    Would be interested to learn whether it’s spread to Europe completely by accident because it’s something that cropped up in American discourse because things are different there (like feminists objecting to ‘cunt’), or whether there’s actual evidence for the European ban. Would stake a grand or so on the former.

  5. Without looking anything up, I’d guess that the anti-smoke lobby think menthols are especially enticing to children, therefore ban them.

  6. Round here 10 menthol and a packet of large Rizzlas is a common order. Apparently the weed tastes even better mixed with menthol ‘baccy.

  7. Should I be worried that I’m beginning to be unable to identify which stories you post are sourced from the Grauniad and which from the Torygraph without checking the link?

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