Tuesday
If it isn’t smoking, it’s vaping. A bill designed to regulate the industry has reached its culmination in the House of Commons. It covers tobacco, but also liquid solutions inside devices that people can puff on to get a good feeling out.
It’s a tetchy subject, as Mary Glindon MP (Labour/Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend) pointed out. She’s worried about “youth vaping” , a phenomenon a government finds hard to handle.
Simon Hoare MP (North Dorset/Conservatives) believes it’s a “passport away from tobacco”, but it’s still a way off not doing it at all. In any case, if the country feels it can move on from smoking proper, maybe further progress is needed to bring an end altogether.
Wednesday
A debate about a budget and how people are feeling is a tetchy exchange between Labour and Conservatives. Furthermore, a second reading of the Finance Bill provided a further occasion to see MP’s lock horns, to find out who’s still on top.
In the aftermath of a controversial set of announcements by the Chancellor, Nesil Caliskan MP (Barking/Labour) stood in her defence, to declare an era of “a responsible government, and a government that will take tight fiscal rules seriously”.
It isn’t easy to say, considering the Tories always disagree. However, Kanishka Narayan MP (Vale of Glamorgan/Labour) also heralded a new Labour day, calling the budget “daffodil laden”.
