h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Give it two weeks and you'll have to be 18 to smoke. I'm not sure how pertinent that is to this debate but I didn't realise it was *actually* happening; I knew it had been suggested but it's actually becoming law on October 1st.

Don't think it'll matter much to be honest.

i dunno, Violent Crime will probably shoot up with a bunch of 16 and 17 year olds running round with nicotine cravings.

Thats assuming they dont get their cigs from under the counter at Dodgy Daves corner shop, have a mate who looks 18 so sends them to get their cigs, or parents who buy their cigs for them.

Bearing in mind I was tall enough to get beer from the local offy at 14, as were a number of my mates, I doubt the new age restrictions will make much of a difference.

The raising the age at which you can buy cigarettes thing is bonkers... Mind, the laws in this country regarding ages at which you can do certain things are just laughable.... Full time work from 16... but can't vote until your 18, and can't go for a drink with work mates until your 18, and now can't buy cigarettes until your 18?; and of course, like with alcohol it will make such a differnce to the amount of under 18's smoking that its illegal to buy them... And for the next governments trick they're going to stop gun crimes by making guns illegal Really started to notice in the last month or so the huge swaithes of cigarette buts up to my ankles outisde my door (and because the door opens straight out onto the street), in my downstairs hallway too... There obviously mainly from the pub a few doors up, and not helped in their accumulation by the way the winds blow round the from of the building and the alcove outside my door in which they collect... And also, the habbit of the shop owners between me and pub to sweep everything this way towards my house Went to a few pubs on Saturday night in the first one I couldn't sit in the pub it stank to high heaven of really cheap nasty detergent/bleech/cleaner The smell of cigarettes wasn't too great in some pubs, but really... I think I prefered the smell of stale smoke to the smell of stale beer cheap tart perfume and horrible hospital-style cheap ineffectual cleaning products

I have noticed the prevalent stink of unwashed bodies when out clubbing... The keller gets a bit smelly from all the people who wear leather jeans and jackets and havent had a shower all week...



But then maybe it'll encourage people to wash more? And at least I dont smell of them when I get home... Or of smoke!

Luckily I dont live close to a pub, but I do think that it would have made sense or the gvmnt to have required pubs to clean up their own mess if they are oing to put people outsde, or at least laid on more street sweepers for the purpose of...

'more road Sweepers'! We used to have road sweepers put on by the council, they entirely got rid of that service about four council tax risers ago But I think the pub should definately have the responsibility for the mess made around its premises as a result of its buisness; I believe take away 'establishments' like MCd and BK have a responsibility to do this in terms of the wrappings from their food* in the local area around the sshops *I use the word 'food' in the broadest sense of its potential meanings If the nights carry ongetting cold like this I'll no be going to the pubs much more at all until the spring appears; Tis vastly cheaper to drink at home and at least then there won't be restrictions on waht I can do whilst I'm drinking

That's not necessarily a bad thing, maybe people will start playing scrabble and stuff again

Hey, maybe its a conspiracy between nintendo and the government to get people drinking at home and needing games to play and thereby making a wii a necessary household item?

Naa... its a conspiracy between Tescos ASDA and the government... to encourage bindge drinking, in order to boost sales of the Daily mail of course, it is somehow associated with alien abduction, Elvis and the death of Princess Di... I've yet to work them into it fully though

You simply cant prove it! You know I'm right really, mine's tied into the british and Japanese economies too. Hah! Seems simple on the surface but it's SO BIG!

Don't forget the illegal immigration issue!!

Blame Brussels!

Blame brussel sprouts!

No not the sprouts!!
Sprouts are good!!

I wonder which causes the most deaths every year - religion or smoking?

yeh, right, its the Euro MP people right, they had to ban smoking cause like they were trying to drag attention away from their killing of Princess Di, which like they had to do cause she'd found Elvis, hiding out with like these illegal imigrents, in a kinda top secret Japanese/American agency type place where htey had like all this UFO stuff and alien bodies and di weird experiments with genetically modified babbies and fruit bats and things, and right, then the european MPS try to cover that up cause they were being pusshed on by tescos and ASDA and like cause they have shares in it and like their new food lines are all using like the really weird alien technology stuff and thats like what Elvis was doing there when Princess Di found him, with this weirdo alien tesco burger food and things, and like the JApan and American goverments wanted it covered up too, cause its like there research place, and Kenerdy is like hiding out there too, cause he wasn't relaly shot at all cause like that was the aliens and everything and right, you know the illegal immigrents?; well like they're mainly actually aliens in disguise and like thats all the fault of the Americans, I mean, the Japanese, or the european Mps in Brussels or something innit.

yep that sounds about right

Yeh, but I forgot to mention, like the aliens that are seemingly these illegal imigrents, like they're like some of them, terrorists, as they got to eat some of teh early GM alien food that wasn't right, and they're like either turned them into pedophiles or terrorsts or something like...

Daliy mail headline 'Alien illegal imigrent pedophiles killed dianna'

Daliy mail headline 'Alien illegal imigrent pedophiles killed dianna'

'... After drugs, homelessness and anti-hunt demonstrations rock the capital's foundations'

I'm sure thatline was on mock the week.