Opportunity knocks for Britain’s anti-Brexit tobacco harm reduction advocates

One of the joys of Brexit is watching diehard Remainers grudgingly acknowledge that there may be some advantages to Britain leaving the European Union.

This is especially true in the field of tobacco harm reduction.

One advocate of THR who appears to have grasped the new reality, despite being anti-Brexit, is Gerry Stimson, co-founder of the annual Global Forum on Nicotine (GFN).

Last July Gerry wrote a piece called ‘Post-Brexit opportunities for tobacco policy reform and tobacco harm reduction in the UK‘ that has been praised by fellow THR campaigners, one of whom tweeted:

Gerry Stimson, capo di tutti capi, tobacco harm reduction, outlines opportunities for THR in post Brexit UK. Maybe rescuing something positive out of Brexit policy mega fiasco.

Earlier this month another tweeted:

Powerful recommendation by @GerryStimson to #UK govt post #BREXIT to provide global leadership to #endsmoking thru #TobaccoHarmReduction

While Gerry may have seen the light, as far as Brexit and THR is concerned, his colleague Paddy Costall is still yearning for paradise lost and sees only “disaster” ahead.

Last month the ‘safer nicotine advocate’ tweeted:

Rejoining the EU is a live issue. It won't go away - however some of our elected representatives would like it to. A disgruntled & volatile electorate, convinced at a point in time by lies, enabled a gang of spivs, thieves, chancers & xenophobes to drag the UK into the current mess that is #brexit ...

Times change - as the opinion polls show - and @Keir_Starmer @UKLabour will never be forgiven if they fail to reverse the disaster that has been visited on this nation by a combination of anger, greed and xenophobia.

On January 31, 2020, Costall also tweeted:

Today is a sad day for me & for many other believers in the positive aspects of the #EU. I hope like many others, including some who voted to the contrary & now regret it, that we will soon be rid of this #brexit & once again aligned with our friends & colleagues in #EU #European

Another THR campaigner who never tires of warning us of the dire consequences of Brexit is Clive Bates, the former director of ASH. On February 1, Bates tweeted:

The Brexit dream comes in rhetorical generalities: freedom, nationhood, nativism, sovereignty, WWII.

The Brexit reality comes in grinding specifics: barriers, red tape, delays, checks, costs, business failures and exits, shortages, price increases, visas.

Prior to that (January 23) he tweeted:

For those already dismayed that Brexit isn't turning out quite as they hoped, here's a reminder that the pain will never end.

And a few days before that he wrote:

Massive increase in bureaucracy, hopeless IT, incompetent government. All pain, no benefits. Nice job Brexiteers.

If I was to list every one of Clive’s anti-Brexit tweets I’d be here all day. However, on the issue of Brexit and vaping, Clive – like Gerry Stimson – sees opportunities.

In a recent letter to Jo Churchill, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Health and Social Care, he suggested several post-Brexit tobacco and nicotine policy reforms that would have been impossible (or highly unlikely) had we still been a member of the EU.

They include lifting the ban on oral tobacco (snus) and properly regulating all smokeless tobacco; raising the limit on nicotine concentration in vaping liquids to allow vaping products to compete more effectively with cigarettes; replacing the bans on advertising of vaping products on TV, radio, internet and in publications with controls on themes and placement; and replacing blanket bans on advertising of low-risk tobacco products with controls on themes and placement.

There are ten policy reforms in all and I don't disagree with any one of them, although the 'smoke free' rhetoric sticks in my throat a bit.

Nevertheless it amuses me that someone who is so anti-Brexit, and describes as "incompetent" the very government that enabled the UK to leave the EU (with a deal!), is now hoping to persuade that same government to reform policies we would have been stuck with had it not been for the very thing he abhors.

This isn't to say the Government will act upon his advice. After all, 'gold-plating' EU policy is standard procedure for UK governments and we've yet to see whether Brexit will make any difference on that score.

But at least the UK government has the option to go its own way and liberalise existing policies.

However, what really prompted this post was something else. One, a quote last week by another anti-Brexit THR advocate and, two, the reaction by vaping advocates to the threat of further anti-vaping legislation across the EU.

The latter concerns further revisions to the Tobacco Products Directive that could, in due course, lead to flavour bans, further restrictions on the promotion of e-cigarettes, and even vaping bans.

Vaping advocates responded with rage, and I don't blame them. It was interesting though that some of the loudest voices were Remainers.

Meanwhile here’s the quote, reported last week, by a leading vaping advocate who is another diehard Remainer:

“Britain’s newly independent status really gives us an opportunity to lead this on the world stage," he said.

“It is vital that the UK now take advantage of the legislative and regulatory independence afforded by Brexit, to safeguard this country’s proportionate, evidence-based approach to vaping.”

To spare his blushes I won’t name him but here are some of his many tweets on the subject of Brexit:

Brexit is a pipedream. Just because you want to believe a turd can become a gold bar it is still a turd.

Brexit is a joke that is set to ruin this country.

People's vote now and put a stop to this Brexit shambles.

Only sane option is NO BREXIT.

Brexit is a joke. It is and was always doomed to failure.

And so on ad nauseam.

As you can see, some people’s hatred of Brexit is visceral and ongoing. Indeed, even as I was writing this post Clive Bates was tweeting:

That doesn’t sound right. UK civil servants had huge experience through Council working groups and were instrumental in the design of many foundational EU policies. But finding experienced hands who didn’t think Brexit was delusional self-harming nonsense would be a challenge.

The bizarre thing is that those in pole position to influence the Government’s tobacco harm reduction policies post Brexit are more often than not deeply sceptical of Brexit if not vehemently opposed to it.

Some even want the UK to rejoin the European Union at the earliest possible moment.

And yet, in the same breath, they want the Government to grasp the “opportunity” that Brexit offers and wouldn’t exist had the UK not left the suffocating embrace of an overly bureaucratic federal Europe.

The fact that on an issue that interests them they see "opportunities" but on Brexit generally they see only “disaster” and “self-harming nonsense” strikes me as a bit rich.

Comments

[Pat Nurse]

Government will do as it is told by unelected quangos and wowsers because it is made up of people who appear to be unable to think for themselves and like to show they are good people because y'know - tobacco companies and by association, smokers, are eviiiiil.

BTW, does "safer nicotine advocate" mean "fcuk smokers, I vape, save my product of choice." ?

What I put into my body is none of those sanctimonious bullies' business. I do wish they and the Government they lead by the nose would recognise that neither I nor anyone else was born to have my body and mind owned by people trying to push their own fears and prejudices on me. Leave us alone.

As I have said before, there is no point in voting anymore. No matter who you vote for - in or out of the EU for example - the handwringing "gimmie more funding" quangos, health freaks, hypochondriacs and control freaks still win every time.

When Government can be bothered to listen to the voter and not the anti smoker stooges via the Guardian mouthpiece, then voting might mean something again.

Until then, I will smoke until I die. Wake me up when the revolution starts. zzzzzzzzzzz