"It's not about health, it's about control."
I can't remember the first time I used that phrase – a long, long time ago, as Don McLean would say – but our opponents were listening, it seems.
A few years ago the Scottish Parliament's Cross Party Group on Tobacco Control changed its name to the CPG on Tobacco and Health.
If you're wondering why they bothered, papers recently released shed some light on the matter. In particular, a note submitted to the CPG on Tobacco Control AGM, dated October 30, 2012, reads:
Remit and Format of the Cross Party Group
We would like to suggest that we review the name of the Group – "CPG on Tobacco Control" – on the basis that while "tobacco control" is the familiar and accepted term for those working in the field, it might not be well understood by others who may even shy away from the word "control". We would like to suggest changing the name of the Group to "CPG on Tobacco and Health", which sounds positive, links to wider health interests and might encourage even more MSPs to engage with the Group.
Similarly the purpose of the Group is currently "To take forward an effective tobacco control agenda in Scotland" and we would like to suggest that "To benefit publish health through building political dialogue and collaboration to tackle the harm caused by tobacco use in Scotland" is again more positive and may be more appealing to other Members.
By the time the group met again, on May 2, 2013, the changes had been made and all mention of "control" had been removed.
Of course, you and I know that changing or deleting a word makes no difference to what drives public health activists to campaign for smoking bans, plain packaging, punitive taxation etc etc.
The motivation remains the same. The rest is spin, designed to make them look less authoritarian (and puritanical) than they really are.
But what we also know – thanks to this little titbit – is that public health campaigners are very sensitive about their portrayal and they don't want people using the 'c' word to describe their activities.
Not sure I can control myself, to be honest.