i actually think this is a good idea for health and how to address vice

[karyn]

from the advertiser

No sex, drink or smokes, we're British
By BENEDICT BROGAN and
GRAEME WILSON in London

BRITISH Health Secretary John Reid has emerged as Britain's nanny-in-chief, with an extraordinary plan for state intervention in people's personal lives.

Eating, drinking, smoking and sex are targets of Labour's health secretary in a swathe of proposals to shape how Britons behave.

Dr Reid, presenting the Government's public health White Paper yesterday, talked up the importance of leaving adults free to make "informed choices".

Critics who studied the litany of rules, codes, advice lines and campaigns in the 200-page document, however, accused him of unprecedented interference.

"This is Nanny Reid run wild," Tory health spokesman Simon Burns said.

The $2.4 billion package of initiatives includes a ban on smoking in all restaurants, workplaces and most pubs by 2008, with an exemption for pubs not serving food.

Publicly-funded "lifestyle coaches" will help people get fit and a helpline, Health Direct, will give advice on diet, nutrition, exercise and sexual health.

Curbs will be imposed on food and drink advertising, including a red-amber-green code for classifying healthy and unhealthy foods.

There will be national screening to tackle the sexual disease chlamydia, which affects up to one in 10 women. A confidential e-mail sex advice service will be set up. It could be used by under-age children without parental consent.

School nurses will encourage healthy lifestyles among children and there will be curbs to the use of infant formula on the NHS to encourage breast-feeding.

To begin with, the measures will apply only in England, with Wales expected to follow later.

Critics pointed to the striking contrast between Dr Reid's unashamed interventionism and Labour's willingness to introduce 24-hour drinking and liberalise the drug laws.

Dr Reid hailed the proposals as urgently needed action to tackle the effects of passive smoking, the obesity epidemic and the soaring rate of sexual diseases.

[Nightingale]

Funny that the article doesn't mention that Ireland banned smoking in all public places, and Scotland has just followed suit.

[karyn]

interesting. that would seem to be pertinent

[CPRB]

yeah but you think you can stop an Irishman from having a smoke and a pint of guiness?

[BrightStar]

Banning stuff isnt really going to make the other stuff better , in most cases.*

[Nightingale]

yeah but you think you can stop an Irishman from having a smoke and a pint of guiness?

Smoking in public is banned. The English idea is that smoking in bars which serve food should be banned, and I suspect that this is what the Irish may have done (although I'm not 100 pro on that), and many Irish pubs (the real ones) don't serve a mass of food.

[Nightingale]

Banning stuff isnt really going to make the other stuff better , in most cases.*

True. In fact, the first person to officially and publically get into trouble over the smoking ban - and lose his position - was a government minister in Ireland.