The Health Minister wants to ban smoking! - Yes Prime Minister

dr thorne peter come in uh sit down now um you wanted to talk to me about um cigarettes ah yes you read my paper yes absolutely how did you react well i wonder if you could summarize it in your own words those were my own words yes exactly of course but uh but the prime minister often finds that a brief verbatim summary clarifies the emphasis and focuses on salient points but precisely well briefly i'm proposing that the government should take action to eliminate smoking complete ban on all cigarette sponsorship and advertising even at the point of sale 50 million pounds to be spent on anti-smoking publicity ban smoking in all public places and progressive deterrent tax rises over the next five years until a packet of 20 costs about the same as a bottle of whiskey isn't that uh rather drastic absolutely should reduce smoking by at least 80 percent 90 if we're lucky and drive the tobacco companies out of business yeah well peter of course you know i agree with you basically smoking should be stopped oh no question and we will stop it in due course at the appropriate juncture in the fullness of time you mean forget it oh no absolutely but we must be realists you and i weren't born yesterday no and we didn't die yesterday what 300 people did prematurely as a result of smoking 100 000 deaths a year at least it's appalling but do you know what would happen if i took this to cabinet you know what the treasury would say yes they say that smoking brings in four billion pounds a year in revenue and we can't manage without it you can't beat the treasury no not with financial arguments but this is a moral argument yes but even just admit it i've got an idea this could be a way to beat the treasury you mean you'll support me you've made your point we'll give it a try i'll even read your report again this could be very interesting thank you very much indeed but will you support me uh well not publicly it would undermine my position undermine the argument if i were to support you from the start i have to be seen as the impartial judge who is swayed by the force of the argument yes i see that but off the record i'd like to see this pushed very hard very hard indeed i'd like to see you make some speeches on it peter thank you very much indeed and thank you for your cigarette paper your paper you

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Length: 3min 6sec (186 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 13 2021