Update on my post about 'Tobacco Taxation, Smuggling Smoking in Ireland', published this week by the Irish Heart Foundation (IHF) and widely reported by the Irish media.
British consultancy firm Landman Economics, who wrote the report, have some interesting clients. In addition to the IHF, they include:
- Age UK
- ASH
- Tobacco Control Research Group at the University of Bath
- Health Economics Research Group at Brunel University
- Compass
- Demos
- Fabian Society
- Gingerbread
- Institute for Public Policy Research
- TBR Economics
- TUC
- UNISON
- Unite
- Welsh Assembly Government
Spot a trend, anyone?
Landman's report for the IHF won't come as a surprise to those who recall another Landman paper, commissioned by ASH, entitled The Effects of Increasing Tobacco Taxation: A Cost Benefit and Public Finances Analysis.
More recently (September 2011) ASH commissioned the firm to write an analysis and review of the following paper, 'The impact of plain packaging of cigarettes in the UK: a simulation exercise, a report for Philip Morris International, November 2010', J. Padilla.
No prizes for guessing that Landman's critique didn't agree with Padilla's.
Landman Economics was founded in 2008 by Howard Reed, previously chief economist at the Institute for Public Policy Research (also known as "New Labour's favourite think-tank"). Landman doesn't appear to be in the IPPR's league just yet though because Reed is the only person listed as a member of staff on the company's jejune and somewhat garish website.
They say you can tell a lot about a man from the company he keeps and Reed is no exception. According to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health's Inquiry into the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of tobacco control: Submission to the 2010 Spending Review and Public Health White Paper Consultation process, participants who gave oral and/or written evidence are listed as follows:
Deborah Arnott, Chief Executive, Action on Smoking and Health
Professor Linda Bauld, Professor of Social Policy, University of Bath
Dr Henry Featherstone, Head of Health and Social Care, Policy Exchange
Professor Anna Gilmore, Professor of Public Health, University of Bath
Professor Martin Jarvis, Professor Emeritus of Health Psychology at the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London
Professor Susan Michie, Professor of Health Psychology, University College London
Howard Reed, Economist, Landman Economics
Dr Gabriel Scally, Regional Director of Public Health for the South West
Professor Robert West, Director of Tobacco Studies, Cancer Research UK Health Behaviour Research Centre, University College London
Good to see Henry Featherstone, formerly of Policy Exchange, giving evidence to this self-styled "inquiry". You may recall this post from March 2010: ASH and Policy Exchange - the plot thickens.
Meanwhile, like Martin Dockrell of ASH (What do ASH and Left Foot Forward have in common?), Reed has also written for the leading left-wing blog.
Worryingly, he seems to believe that Cutting red tape isn’t a strategy for growth.
I could go on, but you get the picture. Draw your own conclusions.
Simon Clark