Judges back Department of Health - 550 people dumped on the dole

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In a terrible decision the Appeal Court upheld the Government's proposed ban on cigarette vending machines:

Cigarette vending machines will be removed from pubs, clubs and restaurants after the top judges yesterday upheld a Government ban.

The measure, drawn up by the Department of Health to combat under-age smoking, will come into force in October.

 As a result of this decision an entire industry will close:

Tobacco industry chiefs said it would ‘abruptly and entirely eliminate’ the vending industry, costing at least 550 jobs.

And – even worse – the judges acknowledged that there’s no evidence to justify the decision:

...statistics used by the DoH to justify the ban were ‘little more than guesses’, the judge said

So 550 people go home tonight knowing they’ll have no job in October as a result of a decision based on evidence that is just a guess.

As an aside the self-important Ben Goldacre had this to say about people in public health:

People who work in public health bend over backwards to disseminate evidence-based information to the public

This single decision shows just how wrong Ben is (again).

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