A response to anti-smoking MP Bob Blackman

Bob Blackman MP has written a piece for Conservative Home extolling the virtues of the recent changes in legislation for the sale of cigarettes, including the display ban. However, there are a number of contradictions and problems with his article.

Early on he states:

“It is right that the days of intrusive governing are over but we cannot simply allow such damaging behaviour to continue with insufficient support available for those who wish to rid their lives of this addiction. I welcome that fact that David Cameron has set up a behavioural insight team in the heart of his Government to help design an environment that is conducive to healthy behaviour.”

This is a clear oxymoron. Either the Government operates a policy of targeted intrusions into personal freedom, or it does not. To select which elements of liberty and choice are left to the populace and which are decided by Government is a return to the nanny-state approach employed by New Labour.

Secondly, he quotes the figure £13.7 billion as the total cost of smoking to the UK. This is in fact a discredited figure from Dr. Henry Featherstone, who is known to be sympathetic to the whims of ASH. That figure included an arbitrary £2.9 billion lost due to smoking breaks. The true figure, from the 2008 accounts of ASH, is £2.7 billion.

Later, he enthuses about the political concept book “Nudge” by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein. While this book has many useful ideas, Mr Blackman has misinterpreted the concept of a “nudge”. Nudges should be subtle policies which encourage a certain type of behaviour. Enforcing a costly refurbishment of every corner shop and cigarette retailer in the country cannot be seen as “subtle” in any way.

Finally, he defeats his own evidence to support the change:

“Teen smoking rates in Canada have also fallen steadily. This fall cannot all be due to display bans as rates fell before and after display bans were introduced.”

The graphic he uses to show the Canadian smoking rates for 15-19 year olds shows a fairly consistent drop from 2001 to 2009, with no noticeable difference after 2006, when the cigarette display ban came into force. It therefore seems likely that the display ban in fact had no effect on youth smoking.

Ireland brought in a tobacco display ban in July 2009, but evidence from Ireland’s Office of Tobacco Control (OTC) indicates that smoking rates in those between 15 and 17 years old did not decline between June 2008 and June 2010. Smoking has in fact risen from 27% to 29% of the population since 2005.
When the evidence from other countries shows no quantifiable reduction on young people smoking, the most likely reason for the legislation seems to be as a populist policy which costs virtually nothing to the Government while placating the militant anti-smoking lobbying firm ASH.

Of course we all recognise that smoking is harmful, but while it remains a legal activity, the Government must refrain from following the lead of New Labour in telling people how to live their lives.

Comments

[Eddie Douthwaite]

Not to mention the cost of Tobacco Control.

http://f2cscotland.blogspot.com/2011/04/counting-costs-of-tobacco-control.html

[Eddie Douthwaite]

Or the vested interests of the Pharmaceutical Companies.

http://f2cscotland.blogspot.com/2011/04/bma-urges-conference-to-distance-itself.html

[Eddie Douthwaite]

The former Shadow Health Secretary at the Scottish Parliament (Jackie Baillie) takes nearly 3 months NOT to give her promised reply to an e-mail.

Voters in Dumbarton should take note of her failure to respond.

Read the comments related to this link.

http://f2cscotland.blogspot.com/2011/03/scottish-labour-endorses-smoking-ban.html

[Dick Puddlecote]

It's not just the £2.9bn plucked-from-the-air figure which was wrong with the Policy Exchange report. It was a laughable dog's breakfast from start to finish.

http://dickpuddlecote.blogspot.com/2010/03/that-policy-exchange-nonsense.html

That Blackman can be so gullible as to fall for such execrable guff perfectly illustrates the poor quality of our current politicians.

[Richard Craven]

@eddie douthwaite

I imagine that her failure to attend to your queries would be attributable to the fact that, as the Shadow Health Secretary, she already has a heavy caseload of actual sick people to deal with, the resolution of the concerns of whom she for some unaccountable reason views as more urgent than addressing your own particular concerns.

[OutlawTobaccoInstead]

Why do I get the impression you lot are all pro smokers? thats all it boils down to really.
this isn't about civil liberties AT ALL.
if it was, where is my right NOT to breath in your fumes? nah you lot don't care about the non smokers so why should we care about your right to smoke?! I think i'll go back to getting high on my cannabis stash, oh yeah its illegal but it safer than tobacco
so who cares.

[Robert Guillame]

Sick of health fascism in all its guises

[Richard Craven]

@OutlawTobaccoInstead

You're by no means the only one who recognizes the disconnection between the ostensible BBW agenda of civil liberties, and the tobacco apologism which sometimes dominates discourse on BBW's sites.

I don't think cannabis is the answer though. It's no safer than tobacco, and its effects are insidious.