Health Bill [HL]

My Lords, I make one very brief point in the hope of winning at least two votes from the Floor of the House—those of the noble Earl, Lord Onslow, and the noble Baroness, Lady Cumberlege. I address the noble Baroness directly because of her comments about the balance between potential harm and condoning exploitation in a visit. That is what this is about; we cannot condone potential exploitation because of another potential harm that we know is not a killer, because we know that smoking is a killer. I am a great respecter of the noble Earl, Lord Howe. In fact, I would have liked to have been persuaded by him because he is so persuasive, but I wish only that I could persuade him that this is a strategic health issue. The noble Baroness, Lady O’Cathain, argued clearly for children, and the noble Baroness, Lady Northover, pointed out that it is not the small shopkeepers who will pay for the new displays. When I talked to another noble Baroness earlier, who is not in the Chamber but will vote in a particular way, she said, "I am not particularly in favour of this but I will vote for it, because we are at a point in history at which we will move to these kinds of gantries being seen as an historical incident, and we will move further towards less and less smoking and towards it becoming less attractive". I hope that noble Lords will support this.