Health Bill [Lords]

No, I will not give way. Other people want to speak. Hardly anybody takes up smoking as an adult. Smoking is taken up by children or those in their late teens. Recently at the O2 Centre in Greenwich—as I understand it, O2 is not one of the oxygens, but it ought to be some chemical reference—there was a tented area that was dedicated exclusively to the promotion of cigarettes. People have been going round bars in the north-east of England with illuminated trays and illuminated young women carrying them, and a similar approach has been taken on the beaches in Brighton. Those involved have been dishing out free cigarettes to British holidaymakers in Spain to ensure that they remain addicted. People say, "Oh, these visible displays have no impact," but let me quote from a Philip Morris official who said fairly recently:""The more visible our products are to consumers, the more sales we make."" It is no good Opposition Members saying, "Oh, there would be a damaging revenue cost if the displays were banned." If there were a revenue cost, it would mean that the ban was working. However, the industry claims that the ban would not work, but if it would not work, why is it going on about it? The other point is this. I have every sympathy with the small shopkeeper, but we are not talking about small shopkeepers; we are talking about some of the biggest multinational corporations in the world. The hon. Member for Hemel Hempstead (Mike Penning) said that he would like to see them go bankrupt, but they are a long way short of being bankrupt. They are rolling in money. If the small shopkeepers need help to pay to get rid of displays, they should ask the big bosses—the tobacco barons—to pay up the money and help them to conceal those displays.