No going back over smoking

6:30am Tuesday 25th March 2008

It would be futile to argue that the effects of recent anti-smoking legislation and ever-increasing tax on cigarettes have not been felt by some businesses. It is obvious, for example, that many local pubs are not the places they once were in terms of customers.

Similarly, corner shops, which often rely on tobacco sales to bring in people who then spend on other things, are feeling the pinch. Many smokers have given up on buying their supplies legitimately due to the cost and rely instead on local bootleggers.

Now plans are being aired which would ban cigarettes and tobacco products from being displayed in shops and in pub and restaurant vending machines where youngsters may be present. A final nail in the coffin for many of these businesses?

But surely such a move would have no effect on smokers already committed, through their addiction, to buying cigarettes or tobacco. They would know they were still on sale, just out of sight, and continue purchasing them.

What it would do, however, is remove temptation from young and impressionable minds, not to mention those sensible souls trying to quit, in much the same way the ban on cigarette advertising did all those years ago. Now, as then, any sensible strategy that stops people taking up this lethal and expensive habit must be a good thing.

As far as smoking is concerned, Britain is undergoing a revolution, and for the better. While there is sympathy for those affected by the pace of this change, there can be no going back.