The problem I have is how far do we go? I can accept that Smoking is dangerous (predominantly to the smoker themself). I can also accept that aything that districts a driver is dangerous. Although we have an offence of Driving without Due Care and Attention (which, AFAIK, did cover mobile phone use while driving even before the government introduced the new offence).
Even though it's never (AFAIK) been proved to actually kill anyone, smoking in confined spaces is also dangerous for anyone else in the space, so while any ban may have questionable benefits and cost an awful lot to enforce, I don't entirely disagree with banning smoking in confined spaces with children.
What I am worried about is where it appears to be leading to. First, we ban Smoking, then drinking. What then? Excessive amounts of sugar? Fats (obesity costs the NHS a lot after all)?
On a more extreme example, do we start banning people with infectious diseases (after all, certain diseases are as dangerous as smoking)? Cars? People of certain colours/genders/sexual persuasions (all of which have been classes as "dangerous" by various governments)?
Increasingly we are being told what we can and can't do by the Government. At best, this achieves little (if anything) and costs the taxpayer a lot. At worst, we (as a people) will become increasingly controlled and while we may not rebel, we will learn that we don't need to control ourselves.
Simply put, people need to learn self control and to take responsibility for their actions. Most people won't knowingly put their (or any) children at risk. How will we expect our children to learn what is safe and what isn't if the government has already banned anything remotely dangerous? This isn't specifically aimed any potential smoking ban, but children learn by making mistakes. How are they going to learn if they aren't allowed to make mistakes?
---------- Post added at 13:47 ---------- Previous post was at 13:29 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wicked_and_Crazy
My point is that when he discovers you smoke he will think that its acceptable to smoke as long as you do it in secret. Wouldn't you sooner know he had started smoking so that you could try to do something about it?
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That is, of course, assuming that the child in question tries smoking and decides he/she likes it.