Government advisers in England have drawn up plans for a smoking permit - similar to the one needed to watch TV - which all smokers would have to carry. Under the plans, anyone who refused to pay for a permit would be banned from buying cigarettes from any outlet.
Although a licence could cost as little as £10 a year, forms would be made deliberately complex to deter people from applying. Smokers could also be forced to obtain a doctor's signature, declaring their health was not at "massive risk" from their habit.
Dr Chaand Nagpaul, GP representative on the British Medical Association"s public health committee, said asking doctors to police the permits would be "unworkable". For each smoker to see their GP to renew a licence would mean 25million extra appointments a year, he claimed.
So would that mean that when I visit the UK I'd need a permit to light up my pipe?
2 comments:
Interesting point. You wouldn't need a permit to smoke, but theoretically you would to buy tobacco. I wonder how that would work for 'foreign nationals'. Possibly some sort of arrangement whereby customs could issue a temporary licence.
Actually the scheme has a few flaws to iron out. For example, how would monitor people buying cigarettes from a machine or using someone who had a license buying tobacco for them.
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