Smokers' rights and tobacco control on BBC Breakfast
Saturday, November 2, 2013 at 21:31 Ian Dunt is editor of Politics.co.uk. In September he wrote:
The anti-smoking movement has always been hysterical and unhinged.
See: Banning smoking in prisons is a threat to public health.
This evening he tweeted:
I'll be on BBC Breakfast tomorrow at 7:20 and 8:50 talking about smokers' rights and the endless tedium of the anti-smoking brigade.
Joining Ian on the programme is my occasional sparring partner Andrea Crossfield, chief executive of Tobacco Free Futures.
I'm delighted and encouraged that someone like Ian is taking the trouble to speak out against Tobacco Control.
He will probably earn himself an entry on the Tobacco Tactics website where state-funded 'researchers' will dismiss him as a stooge of Big Tobacco, but to the best of my knowledge there is no financial link between Ian, Politics.co.uk and the tobacco companies.
He is doing this because he can think for himself and, in his own words:
The anti-smoking lobby long ago gave up on reason or proportion. It is propelled merely by its own insistence that a long life is more moral than a luxurious one. It is a club with an open door policy for the tedious and the jealous.
Dunt v Crossfield should be worth watching.
Update: They've changed the schedule - oh, and BBC Breakfast is only available on the BBC News channel after 7.20 on a Sunday.
I missed the first interview, because it was broadcast before 7:20. The second is now at 8:40 not 8:50.
Reader Comments (6)
"For decades now it has been over-publicising, and in some cases outright lying about, the health effects of second hand smoke."
I could not have described this aspect of the anti-tobacco movement's output better myself, so well said Ian
I doubt that the BBC will pay any attention to such honesty as it seems to feel that its duty lies in supporting the medical establishment however far it strays from virtue and truth, but another voice reflecting reality is a fine thing. Perhaps if we all try very hard the nice people at the BBC will eventually begin to be a little more critical in their reporting of tobacco control?
I may have consumed too many whiskeys tonight because as I typed the previous sentence I swear that something porcine and airborne passed by.
Hello Simon.
You said:
"He will probably earn himself an entry on the Tobacco Tactics website where state-funded 'researchers' will dismiss him as a stooge of Big Tobacco, but to the best of my knowledge there is no financial link between Ian, Politics.co.uk and the tobacco companies."
Would the same be said about:
"Joining Ian on the programme is my occasional sparring partner Andrea Crossfield, chief executive of Tobacco Free Futures."?
Will she be dismissed as a stooge of Big Pharm and "Tobacco Free Futures" as having a financial link with drug companies?
The weird thing is that the later is far, far more likely than the former.
Tobacco Free Futures? Of course she means "Criminalisation of tomorrow's children who may grow up to be smokers."
I saw the later interview. I just heard a shrieking blond yelling everyone down. Very disappointing. No point to it at all. Did I miss something?
"The anti-smoking lobby long ago gave up on reason or proportion."
The screeching Crossfield appears to have proved Ian Dunt's point. Hopefully the sane majority will see it too.
Does anyone have a link to the interview?