Smoking Bans - Authoritarian and Economically Illiterate
The year is 2050 - continued government intrusion into our lives mean we all walk around as barcodes, flashing our digital ID to access public services and conduct financial transactions. This will most likely be through simply showing our faces, which will be promptly scanned and checked against a database of millions (the Home Office is already constructing such a database, using 13million of our passport photos sans consent) either on entry to a public building or through our smartphones. Sadly, this is likely to be the case in much of the developed world. Following Sunak's announcement of a smoking ban, in the UK this distopian nightmare now takes on a farcical dimension - a 41 year old's face grants them access to a packet of Marlboros while the 40 year old's face is declined. The State has simply no right to dabble in such lunacy. The authoritarian lunatic is also an economic illiterate: At the current average UK price of £11.46 a packet, a 20 a day smoker will spen...