Jacob Rees-Mogg: ...debate on covid-19. Thursday 12 November—Debate on a motion on the effect of the covid-19 pandemic on refugee communities, followed by a debate on a motion on achieving the ambition for a smoke-free England by 2030, in the light of the covid-19 pandemic and public health reorganisation. The subjects for these debates were determined by the Backbench Business Committee. Friday 13...
Jacob Rees-Mogg: Patience! The hon. Member for Na h-Eileanan an Iar (Angus Brendan MacNeil), when I was newly elected, very generously took me to the Smoking Room and gave me a couple of glasses of Scotland’s finest produce to help me to learn how to pronounce his constituency, whereas the hon. Member for Rhondda merely bellows at me across the Chamber. For that reason, I may try harder with Na...
Jacob Rees-Mogg: ...firm iron fist that expresses the Government’s will that things should go in a certain way. I encourage the Government, through my amendment, to make the background noises—the conversations in smoke-filled rooms—match the fine words that we are hearing in this House. And so I come to why I want to exempt Somerset. Well, there is history—there is always history! I will start, as...
Jacob Rees-Mogg: ...get accused of being in the pay of the tobacco industry, which I am not—my investment business has investments outside, not in, the United Kingdom—but in the 18th century it was thought that smoking was good if you lived in damp air. People who went to my old school were beaten for not smoking, whereas by the 20th century it was the other way around.
Jacob Rees-Mogg: ...get accused of being in the pay of the tobacco industry, which I am not—my investment business has investments outside, not in, the United Kingdom—but in the 18th century it was thought that smoking was good if you lived in damp air. People who went to my old school were beaten for not smoking, whereas by the 20th century it was the other way around.
Jacob Rees-Mogg: Just to clarify, had the loyal toast been given, and was it therefore in order to smoke?
Jacob Rees-Mogg: Just to clarify, had the loyal toast been given, and was it therefore in order to smoke?
Jacob Rees-Mogg: ...of regulation, and then build a cave of regulation behind it. I would therefore limit this power. I turn to the phrase “nor detrimentally to affect any lawful industry”. I have never been a smoker. I have never wanted to smoke, and I have no views on whether it is a habit in which others should indulge. I am well aware that smoking is unhealthy. It is a dangerous habit; none the less,...
Jacob Rees-Mogg: ..., but if the Government wish to make cigarettes illegal, they should simply introduce a Bill and pass a law to make them illegal. They should not cut at the edges; they should determine that smoking is a habit that is so dangerous and so deleterious to health that it should be banned. If the Government decided to do that, we could have the argument full throttle as to whether such a ban is...
Jacob Rees-Mogg: ...of regulation, and then build a cave of regulation behind it. I would therefore limit this power. I turn to the phrase “nor detrimentally to affect any lawful industry”. I have never been a smoker. I have never wanted to smoke, and I have no views on whether it is a habit in which others should indulge. I am well aware that smoking is unhealthy. It is a dangerous habit; none the less,...
Jacob Rees-Mogg: ..., but if the Government wish to make cigarettes illegal, they should simply introduce a Bill and pass a law to make them illegal. They should not cut at the edges; they should determine that smoking is a habit that is so dangerous and so deleterious to health that it should be banned. If the Government decided to do that, we could have the argument full throttle as to whether such a ban is...
Jacob Rees-Mogg: ...probably remain pretty good; but I do not think the Government can be secure enough in what they say to issue advice to people on their personal behaviour. We have already discussed drinking and smoking. On smoking, it is so well known, and has been for so long—
Jacob Rees-Mogg: ...probably remain pretty good; but I do not think the Government can be secure enough in what they say to issue advice to people on their personal behaviour. We have already discussed drinking and smoking. On smoking, it is so well known, and has been for so long—
Jacob Rees-Mogg: ...generally, but, in the specific instance that he refers to, I am all in favour. I am less keen—my right hon. Friend might agree—on the Government spending a lot of money telling people not to smoke if they want to. If people have not worked out the dangers of that by now, they never will. I happen to speak as a non-smoker and, though his predilections may lie in the other direction, he...
Jacob Rees-Mogg: ...generally, but, in the specific instance that he refers to, I am all in favour. I am less keen—my right hon. Friend might agree—on the Government spending a lot of money telling people not to smoke if they want to. If people have not worked out the dangers of that by now, they never will. I happen to speak as a non-smoker and, though his predilections may lie in the other direction, he...
Jacob Rees-Mogg: ...have a direct influence on what is happening. They should therefore be subject to a higher standard of openness and transparency than Opposition Front Benchers, who ought to be entitled to their smoke-filled rooms, although as they are socialists, the rooms will have no smoke in them, because they do not approve of that sort of thing. You know what I mean, Mr Deputy Speaker. Given the...
Jacob Rees-Mogg: ...s to packaged mortgages of sub-prime debt. When that debt was packaged together, it gave the highest tiers triple A ratings. What happened to those triple A ratings? They disappeared in a puff of smoke when the underlying mortgages turned out not to be sound. So the ratings agencies cannot be a guide. I have very strong views about the general ability of ratings agencies to predict...
Jacob Rees-Mogg: Some people will refuse to give up smoking, and some of those people will be extremely poor and on very limited means. They will find that an increasing part of their budget is going on taxation. The measure is regressive and hits some of the poorest people in the country, so should the Government not be concerned?
Jacob Rees-Mogg: Unfortunately, tobacco is addictive, and therefore some of these people who are addicted find that they have almost no choice but to smoke. Unless there are alternatives to help them quite strongly to give up, we are taxing the poorest people in society.
Jacob Rees-Mogg: ...virtues, were great ones for regulating and for insisting that everything should be signed, sealed and delivered. Even in a church, there has to be a sign saying that people are not allowed to smoke to deter all those who used to go into a church just to roll a cigarette, light up and smoke away. There are signs everywhere and the mass of bureaucracy is upon us. Now, the Conservative...