Sunak wants to phase out legal smoking

[Artaxerxes]

Sure the industry is corrupt, but it's better to highlight that specifically rather than the substance itself.

Growing up around a 40 day user (if I’m erring on the low side) means I really cannot be doing with the substance if it helps

Vile smelling stuff that hot wires the brain in a cycle of dependcy no matter the cost. Vapes are easier on the lungs but I’m still not thrilled with them partly because of the way they are marketed and aimed at people who’d never otherwise have gone near a cig. Plus walking behind that big steam clouds annoying.

 

[Lotte]

It's that mad hellbeast Katherine Birbalsingh again.

I absolutely can't stand her but it's a bit more complicated than just banning praying. Michaela has a rule about kids not congregating in groups of more than 4. IIRC they don't have a Muslim prayer room, which I assume the girl in question's mum knew when she sent her there. From what I gather, some of the Muslim kids were making a big point of praying in the playground and using their blazers as mats and parents complained about them having to pray in the rain, and they were also bullying other Muslim kids for not being religious enough. One example was a girl being bullied into leaving the school choir because singing in choirs is haram. Parents got involved, and a black teacher got a brick thrown through their window and racially abused over it.

I agree the anti-woke crowd would be in uproar if it was Christian kids but the kids involved sound like nasty little bullies. And FWIW if it was Orthodox Jewish kids putting pressure on non-Orthodox or secular Jewish kids to be more observant, I'd feel the same (I'm Jewish myself but not religious, as evinced by me posting this on Shabbat). Schools don't need morality police.

 

[SpookyFrank]

I absolutely can't stand her but it's a bit more complicated than just banning praying. Michaela has a rule about kids not congregating in groups of more than 4. IIRC they don't have a Muslim prayer room, which I assume the girl in question's mum knew when she sent her there. From what I gather, some of the Muslim kids were making a big point of praying in the playground and using their blazers as mats and parents complained about them having to pray in the rain, and they were also bullying other Muslim kids for not being religious enough. One example was a girl being bullied into leaving the school choir because singing in choirs is haram. Parents got involved, and a black teacher got a brick thrown through their window and racially abused over it.

I agree the anti-woke crowd would be in uproar if it was Christian kids but the kids involved sound like nasty little bullies. And FWIW if it was Orthodox Jewish kids putting pressure on non-Orthodox or secular Jewish kids to be more observant, I'd feel the same (I'm Jewish myself but not religious, as evinced by me posting this on Shabbat). Schools don't need morality police.

Bullying should be dealt with as bullying. The religion bit seems incidental to that, and yet that's what the school seems to be focussed on.

Schools have lots of rooms. Don't see why one couldn't be set aside for prayers at break times. That would take any performative stuff out of the equation because there'd be a dedicated private space that kids could use or not as they saw fit. Any kid who was only doing it for some kind of status play or because they weren't allowed to do it would probably lose interest in prayer pretty quickly if it was normalised, accepted and supported by the school. For kids who genuinely just want to pray, they could be accommodated with a bare minimum of trouble and zero cost to anyone.

The no groups of over four people thing is just weird.

Anyway, this is the smoking ban thread so I'll leave it there.

Don't have much of an opinion on the smoking ban but something has to be done about kids vaping. Every day I see kids of 12 or 13 can't sit still for 20 minutes because they're jonesing for nicotine. If it takes a complete ban on all vape stuff to achieve that, fine by me. If you're gonna smoke, smoke properly.

 

[Dogsauce]

Do vapes make people tetchy and unreasonable like normal fags can do? Or is that something specific to smoking?

 

[SpookyFrank]

Do vapes make people tetchy and unreasonable like normal fags can do? Or is that something specific to smoking?

Nicotine withdrawal makes people irritable. Doesn't matter where your body got the nicotine from.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Do vapes make people tetchy and unreasonable like normal fags can do? Or is that something specific to smoking?

does sunak smoke, or does it come naturally to him?

 

[nightowl]

It probably should be banned. Imagine if cigarettes were only just invented with today's knowledge of the health consequences. The government wouldn't allow them anywhere near the shelves.

 

[Silas Loom]

Apropos of this bill not making it through the wash-up and presumably needing to fight for space with quite a lot of other laudable and urgent Labour manifesto commitments in the next parliament, does anyone actually know anyone under 20 who smokes? Anyone under 25?

My youngest vapes like a fiend, and so do many of her friends and colleagues , but she claims not to know a single cigarette smoker.

 

[seeformiles]

Apropos of this bill not making it through the wash-up and presumably needing to fight for space with quite a lot of other laudable and urgent Labour manifesto commitments in the next parliament, does anyone actually know anyone under 20 who smokes? Anyone under 25?

My youngest vapes like a fiend, and so do many of her friends and colleagues , but she claims not to know a single cigarette smoker.

I read an article recently that some kids are opting for traditional cigs over vapes as it’s seen as edgier. Not that surprising among young ‘uns but Lordy, the cost!