Thursday 22 May 2014

Anti-smoking campaigns aren't working...

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As Chris Snowdon reports:

...seven years of essentially static smoking rates from 2006 to 2013, at a time when graphic health warnings, display bans, plain packaging and banning smoking in pubs, in cars and outdoors were all introduced with great fanfare.

Yet we're told that 'something must be done' and a new generation of controls and restrictions are brought in to try and make life for the smoker intolerable. It is the only high profile public strategy - 'denormalise' smoking through bans, hiding the fags away, plain packs, endless price hikes and ever more draconian limits to where you can actually smoke.

At some point someone has to cotton onto the fact that it simply isn't working and to adopt a genuine harm reduction approach rather than the callous, inhuman 'quit-or-die' strategy of the health fascists.

....

2 comments:

BrianB said...

Simon, please take this message to the higher reaches of your party.

Until 2010, we could always rely on the (majority of) the Tory party to take the pragmatic approach that you correctly identify.

When did it become mandatory for politicians to hate their constituets?

Anonymous said...

The all party anti smoking witch hunt is well funded ,hence it's continuing high profile.
Sadly the so called "freedom,liberty and choice" brigade just whisper their
opposition in their wi-fi cages.
The one outcome of the anti tobacco frenzy has been to prove the relationship between Westminser and the electorate is
as close as is possble to being defunct,not fit for purpose.

One of the few