Tobacco Free Futures to re-brand as Healthier Futures
Tuesday, March 29, 2016 at 8:56 Fancy that.
Five months after Smokefree South West became Public Health Action, Tobacco Free Futures (formerly Smokefree North West) is changing its identity again.
From Thursday (March 31) TFF will be known as Healthier Futures.
According to chief executive Andrew Crossfield, it marks the "start of the next chapter in our story":
In addition to tackling tobacco – which is still a vital part of our work – we are excited to now be taking on responsibility to tackle a range of health issues. Our new mission is to help people live longer, healthier, happier lives.
Readers will recall that a last minute re-launch couldn't save Smokefree South West.
In February, just three months after it became Public Health Action (adding alcohol to its portfolio), SFSW aka PHA was forced to announce its imminent closure.
Does the same fate await Smokefree North West aka Tobacco Free Futures aka Healthier Futures?
And what about Smokefree North East aka Fresh?
More important, why are they doing it? The simple answer has to be – money.
Local authorities appear to be growing wise to the fact that dedicated tobacco control groups offer poor value for money.
Most of the time they are merely parroting the same messages as bodies such as ASH, Cancer Research UK, the British Heart Foundation, the British Lung Foundation and Public Health England.
Therefore, to justify their funding and keep themselves in business, groups like Tobacco Free Futures have decided to diversify into alcohol and obesity.
Re-branding came too late to save Smokefree South West. Can it save Tobacco Free Futures?
What is clear is that after many years sucking eagerly on the public teet, dedicated stop smoking services and lobby groups are coming to the end of the line.
According to a recent report, the use of stop smoking services is down 51 per cent since 2010.
As for lobby groups like Healthier Futures, without public funding they wouldn't exist because there's no demand for them.
Do we really need another campaign group advising us about the dangers of smoking or alcohol?
What makes me laugh is the fact that people like Andrew Crossman and, before her, Fiona Andrews at Smokefree South West, are arrogant enough to think they can switch overnight from being 'experts' on tobacco to become 'experts' on obesity and alcohol as well.
But when did expertise ever come into it? Tobacco control campaigners are rarely experts on health. Their real strength is hectoring or bullying people to change their lifestyle.
For more information on Healthier Futures, TFF have kindly provided an information sheet. Click here to download.
Reader Comments (11)
"Our new mission is to help people live longer, healthier, happier lives."
There's one word too many in that sentence.
Interfering unwanted busy bodies.
More evidence that tobacco control is largely a ponzi scheme run by opportunists (or more to the point racketeers).
Like rats running to the high point on a sinking ship. Well good riddence - they'll have to get real jobs rather than troughing off the taxpayers with a bit of luck.
First they came for tobacco, now they want to come after anything folks enjoy. I'd swear profusely, except it probably wouldn't get past moderation.
lovely last line of the pdf.
"As a separate and unrelated development, we have been required by our landlord to vacate our offices, and will be relocating later in the spring."
You mean this one, David? "A separate and unrelated development?" Yeah, right. We all believe ya, TFF. Honest.
Ahh, as the great Leg-iron says: "It's all unravelling faster than the thread of a loose jumper caught in the door of a Ferrari," isn't it?
As for expertise,. the Chair of TFF was awarded a degree in Zoology in 1975.
These people have got no shame at all.
Ha, ha, give them enough rope and they'll hang themselves, people are sick to the teeth listening to these spin doctors/lobbyist who are only in it for the money and making jobs for themselves, the sooner they realise that the plebs are not buying it any more the better and give us all a break.
Sadly, Govt is listening to them but clearly doesn't need them to justify attacking consumers anymore. Job done. They have claimed the right to harass everyone and screw more money in tax from them than would ever have been acceptable before.
These anti-social phobic activists calling for every mouthful of food, drink and smoke to be controlled by them have just forced up the price of everything and made everyone poorer but they couldn't care less as long as they get to keep their fat cat jobs.
I hope that they find themselves pushed into the same level of poverty via job loses that they pushed others into including the many thousands of people who lost their jobs in tobacco factories, others dependant on smokers for income including pubs, cafes and restaurants, every smoker sacked, or not hired, for just being a smoker, vending machine businesses to small shops and individual tobacconists.
They should pay for the social and economic damage they have caused.