Smoking
My wife smokes. She is a considerate smoker. She never asks, "do you mind if I smoke in your presence?" She goes away and smokes where it cannot hurt anyone else. This is often very inconvenient. What's worse her health is shot. But unfortunately she is addicted and stopping has, so far, proved impossible. She has said that she wishes cigarettes had not been available 40 years ago.
We had an opportunity to save future generations. There was no question of banning smokers. Instead the idea was to stop people becoming smokers. Of course the tobacco lobby screamed and applied pressure. But we had a strong government who said, "No! Our people's health comes first." Unfortunately the current government caved in.
All sorts of stupid arguments were raised. One of the best looked at 20 years time. Imagine two forty year olds. The older can go into a shop and buy cigarettes. The younger is banned. But look at it more closely. The elder is spending $500 a week, coughing his guts out while trying vapes and patches. Meanwhile the younger, who is not addicted, has a larger disposable income and better health.
Perhaps I'm being unfair on the government. Perhaps they didn't just cravenly cave in. Several had worked for the tobacco companies in the past. Whilst they aren't being paid now (that would be an illegal conflict of interest) what happens when they retire? In the UK there was the 'revolving door syndrome'. Government ministers would hand out favours and then when they left office, suddenly they became non-executive directors.
Poll: Would you rather: Christmas in summer forever or winter forever?
Just a bit of a fun poll to get you thinking.
If you had to live out your Christmas days, would you prefer it was a summer Christmas or a winter Christmas?
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63.3% Summer
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35.4% Winter
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1.3% Other - I'll share below
New Year, New Questions You Won’t Solve!
I get smaller every time I take a bath.
What am I?
Do you think you know the answer to our daily riddle? Don't spoil it for your neighbours! Simply 'Like' this post and we'll post the answer in the comments below at 2pm.
Want to stop seeing riddles in your newsfeed?
Head here and hover on the Following button on the top right of the page (and it will show Unfollow) and then click it. If it is giving you the option to Follow, then you've successfully unfollowed the Riddles page.
Share your summer photos! 📷
Taken some beautiful snaps lately? Whether it's rainbows, sunsets or a beautiful summer's day, we'd love you to share the joy with us.
Share a photo in the comments below
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