One lie leads to another
Thursday, October 31, 2013 at 9:29 
Who's this having a crafty fag outside the Houses of Parliament?
Why, it's Luciana Berger who recently replaced Dianne Abbott as Labour's shadow public health minister.
The photo was taken in June and posted on Twitter by @eyespymp.
More recently, during the Labour conference in Brighton, she was again seen lighting up:
A few months' earlier Berger denied that she still smoked. On March 14, in response to another sighting, she protested:
H/T Guido Fawkes (Luciana lights up)
The point is, who cares that she smokes? What's sad is that she feels she has to deny it.
Unfortunately her personal battle to quit may be about to influence public policy.
Yesterday, responding to a report suggesting that "the number of people using the NHS in England to stop smoking has fallen for the first time in four years (Fewer smokers' using NHS in England to try to quit, BBC News), Berger said:
“These figures confirm that this Tory-led Government have completely lost their way on public health. The fact that fewer people are successfully quitting or trying to quit smoking with NHS help for the first time in five years should set alarm bells ringing.
“David Cameron promised tough action on smoking, but he has completely caved in to big tobacco and vested interests. Standardised cigarette packaging is proven to make smoking less attractive to young people, but Ministers have gone back on their pledge to introduce it.
“With around 570 children starting smoking in the UK every day, we need action now. That’s why Labour will be bringing forward an amendment to the Children and Families Bill next month to introduce standardised packaging. Ministers should do the right thing and support that change.” (Labour News)
Like her predecessor Diane Abbott, Berger is peddling the line that the Government has gone back on a "pledge" to introduce plain packaging.
As we know, there was no "pledge". The Government said it would conduct a public consultation on the measure and it delivered.
Former public health minister Anna Soubry - another (former) smoker - made no secret of her desire for plain packaging but the Government never committed itself to the measure.
Berger, like Soubry, is playing politics and it can only be a matter of time before she too declares that she only started smoking because of the "glamorous" packaging.
Like so many politicians her motto appears to be, "Do as I say, not as I do".
PS. Last night I was on LBC discussing the "fall" in the number of smokers using the NHS to stop smoking.
After pointing out that the NHS has a poor record of success in this area, I suggested that smokers who want to quit are increasingly turning to e-cigarettes - a free market solution - in favour of state-run smoking cessation services.
Rubbishing the claim that e-cigs might become a gateway to tobacco, I pointed out that banning their use at work or elsewhere represents a ban on nicotine, a drug that may be addictive for some but is probably less harmful to our health than caffeine - and no-one is suggesting that we ban or restrict our consumption of caffeine. Not yet, anyway.
So once again I found myself acting as cheerleader for e-cigs and the vaping community. I hope they appreciate it!
Reader Comments (12)
And what else did you expect Luciana would do when she was caught red handed having a smoke only to deny it.
She's a politition after all and thats what polititions do.
She knows that if you keep denying it long enough the brainwashed plebs will believe anything.
She has to look after her job and her own interests after all, poor lamb.
I appreciate it Simon - not because I've anything against people, including myself occasionally, choosing to smoke tobacco, but because I don't want them "regulated" (banned). Forest is funded by tobacco companies and makes no secret of it. I expect you to represent their interests. If these coincide with a good word for ecigs, fine. If not, I understand. As for the topic under discussion: why should it matter to whether it is NHS resources or ecigs being used. As ecigs cost them nothing, you'd think they'd be pleased. They really are pathetic.
No wonder people are turning away from the main political parties in droves. Like so many others. this clearly hypocritical MP sees public health and personal freedom solely as tools to be used against her opponents to score points in an increasingly ridiculous contest between two worthless tribes.
The attempts of people like Berger to ignore the vast majority of people in the UK who do not belong in the camp of either big tobacco or public health activist is dishonest and frankly revolting.
If Miliband and Cameron are sincere about their stated desire to engage people in politics and elevate it above the playground brawl that it currently resembles, they should discipline those who utter dishonest hypocritical claptrap in an attempt to score cheap points. Berger is not even close to the truth.
Scroll right down and read all of the Tabbers Tales - 35 tobacco consumers over 31 days - and you will see that even those who began as children or young legal age adults, never began smoking because of packaging. Tabbers is an education for anyone who claims to want to know why people smoke - but I suspect they prefer using their own imaginations instead of finding out actual truth which is rather inconvenient in the propaganda war being waged against us.
http://octabberresistance.blogspot.co.uk/p/were-not-quitting.html
Some smokers just had some form of inbuilt desire to smoke asap (maybe they were born with it?) and couldn't wait for the opportunity, others began smoking for the same reason that Cecilia Farren quit - to impress the opposite sex.
All at #Octabber are fed up to the back teeth of the apologetic and ashamed smokers like Berger. She should do us all a favour and quit so the clear battle lines in this war are drawn.
Former smokers are the worst anti-smokers and we are fed up with their bullying.
As for E Cigs, companies don't care that you stuck up for them - they will still beat us up to enable greater sales of their products on the back of the leperisation of tobacco consumers. It's not about health.
And Tabbers tell us they are not "addicted" they simply enjoy smoking and quit easily when they don't enjoy it anymore.
They are no more "addicted" than they are to coffee and tea. It isn't a battle to quit. If you want to quit you will easily. If you don't, as clearly Berger doesn't, but feel shamed or forced into quitting, then you will struggle a lot because your heart's not in it.
Please be careful Simon not to fall into the trap of using the language designed by the anti-smoker industry to support the denormalisation aspect of : "Smokers as drug addicts."
You've got it completely wrong, Simon, Luciana isn't having a fag at all. How dare you! This good woman is simply propping up the wall. You silly billy!
I started smoking at 13 and packaging had nothing to do with which cigs I bought, the cost was the decider. Today, the cost being quite prohibitive, even to many adults, means that children are far more susceptible to the black market and those criminals who want to get them hooked on smoking.
As usual, the nanny government are completely ignoring the blatant facts and being led by the nose by a load of money grabbing muppets to bring in laws that will make little, if any difference, to how many people smoke and how many children start. If anyone wants to smoke, no matter their age, they will, it's as simple as that. One day, maybe, these idiots in government may just wake up to this fact, but I doubt many of us will be around to see it as it will take a long, long time to get through these particularly thick skulls and pompously huge egos.
...and those criminals who want to get them hooked on smoking.
Lyn, I really don't see any 'white van man' wanting to get anyone 'hooked on smoking'.
By saying that, you are really perpetuating the myth that the TCI like to promote about 'Big Tobacco' trying to 'get kids hooked on smoking'. That's bullshit. Much as they like to make the parallel, tobacco is emphatically not heroin. 'Big Tobacco' want to sell their products, same as any industry. Likewise 'white van man'. That 'white van man' doesn't operate under the same constraints as your average corner shop doesn't mean he's some evil entity trying to entice young children into a 'lifetime of tobacco addiction'. He sells to adults in pubs, and he's trying to turn a profit, same as all of us. That some of that tobacco filters down to young adults is inevitable. Kids are kids, and if they want something, they will find a way to get it.
Don't play their game. They are trying to make the rules, but the rules favour only them. They are deceivers and charlatans, and if you let them make the play, you will lose.
Language is everything... as I pointed out a couple of comment up. They beat us up with words and we must be careful not to repeat parrot fashion the language they have designed for us which always aims to support some form of denormalisation and "Smokers as (insert something horrible)".
nisakiman, I don't agree. Even 14 years ago when my daughter was at school, there were people pushing cigarettes to the school kids. They would sell them individually or in packs at very cut prices compared to UK shops. This got the kids started and for many it did get them hooked. Now, those same people will sell them to the 'now' older kids for a lot more, but still undercutting the shops.
It is there business, just like drugs are to the drug pushers, it is just an easier product to bring into the UK and the punishments are much less than for hard drugs.
As you say, if kids want to try something they will find a way to do it, these people are just offering them the easier way.
The TCI are the ones who are denying that this is happening as well as the smuggling of cheaper cigarettes. They deny that plain packaging will make life much easier for the counterfeiters. They have to deny it in order to keep believing that they are winning the battle and to maintain their credence with the ever gullible.
I resent the idea that people are "hooked" on cigarettes which aren't heroin. They enjoy smoking and when they don't enjoy smoking they quit easily -as can be seen in the millions who have done so without problems.
Heroin addicts hooked on heroin cannot quit when they don't enjoy it anymore because their body will not allow it and cannot function without heroin. It takes not only medical intervention but a complete change of life, a change of friends and a move to a different area.
Black Marketeers selling at school gates are selling what kids are really addicted to - Adulthood and growing up quicker then they should.
I understand your point Lynn but we mustn't use the language antis forced upon us to denigrate us and "hooked" on smoking is one of the words they invented to ruin our reputation as consumers to give the idea that we are not in control of our own bodies and lifestyle choices. We are. Heroin addicts are not.
The biggest danger of the "man with a bag outside school gates" is that his product is not regulated and could be contaminated by who knows what mixed with it to make the volume go further and enhance his non-taxable profits.
Another great own goal by tobacco control who have put today's kids at greater risk than their generation of grandparents.