No comment
Saturday, December 31, 2016 at 10:14 On December 31, 2013, I wrote:
Something has always puzzled me about the honours list and it's this. Why no gongs for the likes of Deborah Arnott, CEO of ASH; Sheila Duffy, CEO of ASH Scotland; Fiona Andrews, director of Smokefree South West; or Andrea Crossfield, director of Tobacco Free Futures?
After all, it's titans of Tobacco Control like Deborah and Sheila who are often credited with introducing smoking bans and other measures that have saved tens of thousands of lives. Allegedly.
Surely they should receive recognition for their services to public health? But, no. The years tick by and Deborah remains plain Ms Arnott. Ditto Ms Duffy.
See New Year Honours: Arnott and Duffy overlooked again.
A year later that oversight was partially put right when Andrews and Crossfield were each awarded an MBE, as I reported here (Was it something I wrote?). But still no recognition for Arnott or Duffy.
This morning I scoured the 2016 New Year's Honours list and I have to report that the CEOs of ASH and ASH Scotland have yet again been overlooked.
Smoking may now be banned at all royal residences but Arnott and Duffy won't be able to enjoy the smokefree (sic) environment at Buckingham Palace any time soon.
Nevertheless, perhaps they'll put their disappointment aside and join me in a toast to Sir Cyril Chantler, appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE), and Professor Jill Pell.
Sir Cyril (whose controversial report on plain packaging gave the green light to the measure) has been rewarded for "services to leadership in healthcare".
Pell has been less visible in recent years but older readers will recall that she was responsible for the "heart attack miracle" report that followed the smoking ban in Scotland. Chris Snowdon wrote about it here: Health fears go up in smoke (Spiked).
Two years later Chris took another shot at Pell's work, querying her claim that the rate of hospitalisations for children with asthma in Scotland had dropped by more than 18 per cent year-on-year since the introduction of the ban on smoking in public places in 2006 (Jill Pell does it again).
See also Professor Jill Pell, doctor of spin (Taking Liberties).
Pell has now been awarded a CBE for "public health research".
I couldn't possibly comment.
Update:Congratulation @AilsaRutter on your OBE for contribution to tobacco control. Well deserved for all your hard work :-) @FreshSmokeFree
— Healthier Futures (@healthier_ftrs) January 3, 2017
Reader Comments (4)
It shows something has gone very wrong in our society when our leaders reward liars and bullies. These thugs have infected every aspect of our culture.
Raise a glass to those charlatans and persecutors? I'd rather choke.
Me too Pat. Liars and bullies - ASH and PHE. And now encouraging children in schools to bully smokers. This wouldn't be tolerated if it were religion or gender.
It is crazy that they have spent so much public money forcing tobacco packs to be first hidden and then put into revolting packs so kids can't see them only for them to then involve kids in marketing tobacco packs.
Off topic, but it is clear that involving children in this way, and shoving smoking under their noses has only one purpose - to recruit the next generation of smokers who become quitters.
Either that, or as we know, the antismoker industry of which PHE and ASH are part, are completely insane. I don't think we should be giving these awards to crazy haters who encourage child smoking and advertise tobacco to kids in a way that tobacco companies are forbidden from advertising to adults, but then the world as we have always known it is upside down.
So they now give honours for propaganda and lies? Recall the so-called 'heart attack miracles' were (and remain) outright fabrications. Perhaps these frauds could be given the honor of residence in one of Her Majesty's Prisons to compensate them for their racketeering and fraud. Tobacco control must be destroyed.