So the torturing of vapers and the introduction of plain packaging has gotten the green light from the EU.

I'm not in the least bit surprised.

The Tobacco Control Industry is a malignant cancer and has reached its tentacles into just about every corner of politics and law.  It is a mindless beast, blinded by its fanatical hatred not of cigarettes, nor even tobacco but of nicotine itself.  It defies logic and reason and the hatred is purely for the sake of hatred.

I'm not that bothered with the e-cigarette thing.  If I want to purchase something of which the EU disapproves then there is always the Interweb.  I'd run the risk of unregulated products and if I poison myself, it's the EU who is to blame.

Nor am I bothered that much about the plain packaging either.  It's just another snide attempt to humiliate smokers but all it will do is make life far more difficult for the tobacconist.  My packaging will be consigned to the bin where it belongs, after [naturally] I have transferred its contents to a more aesthetically pleasing pouch.

There is an interesting footnote to one of the articles –

Around one in five people in Ireland still smokes but the rate is higher in deprived areas.

I'm not quite sure what to make of this.  Are they suggesting that my puffing a pipe is lowering the tone of the area?  Am I single handedly lowering property prices in the neighbourhood?  Has my little neck of the mountain become deprived because of my little pleasures?  Or is this a suggestion that I should quit if I don't want to join the Lower Orders who as we all know are lager swilling louts who spend all their dole money on the horses?  I prefer stout, have a pension and have never backed a horse in my life, so they're on to a loser there.

Does smoking lower the tone of the place, or do people smoke because they live in a deprived area?  Maybe Tobacco Control should use smoking prevalence to discover which areas need investment to raise the standard of living?  At east then they'd be doing something useful.

The TPD is little short of the equivalent of pulling wings off flies.  It's the school bully prodding you with a compass, just because he can.  It doesn't do anyone any good but they do it because they know they can get away with it.

They wil never force me to quit, as it has become a matter of principle.

There is ony one reason I would ever give up the pipe.

That is when I make the decision.