I was on BBC Radio Stoke this morning.

They wanted to talk about the local council's new tobacco control strategy that includes six "strategic priorities":

1. Helping tobacco users to quit
2. Helping young people to be tobacco free
3. Establishing ‘smokefree’ as the norm
4. Tackling cheap and illicit tobacco
5. Effective communications for tobacco control
6. Influencing change through advocacy

Specifically "one of the most important strategies in reducing the uptake of youth smoking is to reduce the rates of adult smoking in the city".

To achieve that children will be encouraged to ask (nag?) their parents to quit. In addition 'voluntary' smoking bans will be implemented in children's play areas and other public spaces.

Now that local authorities have been given the power to tackle 'public' health issues many more councils will undoubtedly follow suit.

Some already have. On Wednesday it was reported that:

The Take Seven Steps Out initiative has been launched by Norfolk County Council in a bid to reduce the risks of second-hand smoke to youngsters.

Bizarrely the campaign featured a man dressed as a giant kangaroo but that's par for the course.

Writing in today's Guardian, public health consultant Dr Lisa McNally admitted:

My team always tries to ensure that our campaigns involve me dressing up in something silly. Recently, my work outfits have included everything from an orange wig (anaphylaxis campaign) to a full length cigarette suit (Stoptober).

Is it just me or are most public health campaigns an extension of children's TV, frequently patronising and more than a little infantile?

More interesting perhaps was the confirmation that 'public' health is now firmly in the grip of local politicians and all the baggage that brings.

According to McNally:

Evenings will often see me in the council chamber. Since public health moved from the NHS into local government, I now work for politicians, and I’ll go along and face the scrutiny of my elected members.

Naturally, she finished her article with an ill-disguised plea for more funding:

There’s more we could be doing to improve people’s health, if only we had the time and resources. There is more that could be achieved through public health work and I constantly feel that we’re only scratching at the surface of that potential. Still, there’s always tomorrow. Another day – and another silly costume.

If 'public' health campaigners are "only scratching at the surface" of what can be achieved to change our lifestyles that's quite a terrifying, Orwellian thought.

The good news is that instead of a '1984' Big Brother type figure, Big Government will in future be disguised as an oversized cuddly toy or puppet.

That's the way to do it.

PS. McNally also wrote:

While this ‘big P’ politics part of my job can be scary, it’s not half as bad as the small ‘p’ politics. Public health operates today within the context of the nanny state debate, which at times can get fierce and personal. Once, after writing an article in a national newspaper about protecting people using mental health services from second-hand tobacco smoke I received a tide of hate mail. One chap called me a ‘left-wing, do-gooder, fascist bitch!’.

As readers know I don't condone such language but who created this climate of intolerance and abuse? 'Public' health campaigners have a lot to answer for.