Twenty Woodbine and a Kit Kat Please.

  So the ban on displaying tobacco comes into force today, meaning that cigarettes and other products will need to be kept under the counter, or behind the closed doors of former display cabinets.

  The ban will only apply to large shops and supermarkets, with smaller shops being exempt until 2015.

  Apparently, according to public health minister Anne Milton, young people are recruited into smoking by colourful, eye-catching, cigarette displays. Really?

  I’m no great expert on these matters but I’d always assumed that young people smoked because their friends did.

  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not an apologist for smoking – it’s a filthy disgusting life threatening addiction but is this really the best way of tackling the problem?

  What about obesity? That’s quite a large (pun intended) problem as well. I think the government have missed a trick here, at the same time as the tobacco display ban they should also have banned the display of sweets, chocolate, and other confectionery from all shops everywhere.

  This would do wonders for the future health of young children, and earn the undying gratitude of harassed mothers throughout the land

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Why on Earth Did She Do That?

    As much as I don’t mind slating Tory politicians I find myself struggling to understand how Francis Maude can be blamed for the terrible tragedy that befell the woman in York who was pouring PETROL, (GAS for American readers)from a jerry can into a glass jug. 

    According to a report from the Mail Online, Mr Maude, the Cabinet Office minister said: ‘People need to be aware there is a risk to supplies. When it makes sense, a bit of extra fuel in a jerry can in the garage is a sensible precaution to take.’

    Sometimes people do stupid things for a variety of reasons; stress, tiredness, forgetfulness, but it’s stretching it quite a lot to blame a hapless politician for this poor woman’s accident.

    I asked my children aged 9 and 11 what they knew about petrol. They both told me that it was extremely dangerous if handled incorrectly and that it could burn and explode. When I further asked if they thought it a good idea to pour some from a can to a jug in the kitchen next to the gas cooker while I was boiling a pan of water they both looked at me as if I were mad.

      I suspect they occasionally think that of me anyway, but if I did that they’d be right.

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