Health Bill [HL]

The Government’s rationale for Clause 19 seems to be based on the curious assumption that teenagers are driven to a frenzy of craving by the sight of a small inert cigarette packet, which, as other noble Lords have pointed out, will still be seen all over the place, even if Clause 19 goes through, in the form of discarded packets in gutters, overflowing dustbins and so on. Surely what really turns teenagers on is the sight of attractive or glamorous people smoking, far more so than the sight of a cigarette packet. If the Government are really concerned, they will have to start censoring every film and television programme made before the mid-1980s, and even more recent ones such as the splendid new series "Mad Men", which is set in the New York advertising world of the early 1960s in which 90 per cent of the fairly glamorous characters smoke 90 per cent of the time. The programme has a tremendous cult following, or so I believe. That is the path down which the Government will have to go if they want to stop teenagers taking up smoking.