Smoking rates and levelling up
Monday, May 17, 2021 at 12:35 A report published today suggests that the number of people smoking in the UK during the pandemic has gone UP.
The report projected 600,000 more smokers than previously envisaged next year as more people have taken up smoking to cope with the stress of unemployment and mental ill health during the pandemic ...
Analysis by Richard Sloggett, a former policy adviser to Health Secretary Matt Hancock, shows that the proportion of smokers in the population rose from 14.8 per cent to 15 per cent in the year to March 2021 - a total of seven million people.
Although I'm sceptical of any sort of modelling, this is very different from ASH's insistence that 'A million people have stopped smoking since the Covid pandemic hit Britain'.
That claim was initially made in July 2020 but five months later – with no further 'evidence' to support it – ASH was still tweeting:
One million smokers in the UK improved their health by quitting in 2020. Will you join them in 2021?
As recently as April 10 (six weeks ago) ASH was behind an 'exclusive' report in the Sunday Mirror whose misleading headline (Million Brits quit smoking during pandemic due to fears over Covid and no fag breaks) I wrote about here.
Ironically, within days a survey by Mintel revealed that:
The stress of Covid-19 has fuelled Britain’s nicotine habit, with more than half of smokers “stress-smoking” more, and 10% lighting up again after quitting, a survey suggests.
Hilariously ASH responded to this with a less than subtle change of emphasis. Now, instead of sticking to the mantra that 'a million people have stopped smoking since the Covid pandemic hit Britain', the new angle was:
A million smokers were galvanised to quit during the first lockdown, but as this research shows, some will have relapsed and those who didn’t stop may now be smoking more.
I can't stress how pathetic this is. I won't use words such as 'dishonest' to describe ASH's original claim but when the Office for National Statistics publishes the official 2020 smoking rates in the summer I would like to think someone will hold them to account (literally) for their deceptive estimate.
One thing we know is, it won't be the Department of Health and Social Care because ASH and the DHSC are bonded like no other pressure group/government department.
Even as I write I imagine the folk at ASH are busy drafting and polishing the Government's new Tobacco Control Plan.
Such is their shamelessness I am sure they will happily put aside their one claim of one million fewer smokers since the start of the pandemic and back Future Health founder Richard Sloggett whose reaction to his own report says it all:
“A major package of national action needs to be introduced this year, including local targeted support, to get back on track to eliminating smoking.”
What a coincidence.
Meanwhile, as mentioned by the Telegraph, Sloggett is a former policy adviser to Health Secretary Matt Hancock, which doesn't bode well. He also has an article in The Times today.
It's behind a paywall but I've read it so you don't have to. In fact, all you have to do is read the headline to know where he's coming from:
Lower smoking rate is measure of government efforts to level up.
How much do you bet that "levelling up" will be part of the Government's justification for further anti-smoking measures in the Tobacco Control Plan?
But here's a thought.
Forcing people in less well off communities to quit smoking isn't levelling up. It's reaffirming the Tories as middle-class paternalists who are determined to impose their 'healthier' lifestyle on everyone else.
Much like New Labour in fact.
Reader Comments (3)
Their ignorance is astounding and shows what happens when they don't listen to the people they attack but everyone else around them instead, from the average anti smoker professional to the local wannabe vaping supplier but never the actual smoker.
Maybe the truth is simply that a whole lot of other people like me who bought abroad or on the black market in protest at our taxes being used to abuse and exclude us these last 14 years have had no other choice than to buy from UK shops and tax paying suppliers because of covid restrictions.
We were always there. Covid has just made us visible. They think if they close their eyes and pretend we are not there, we can just disappear in our millions. 😂😂😂
Yes, no doubt levelling up means creating more inequalities for smokers.
- Scientific studies show that made up numbers are as effective as real ones.
- How many scientific studies is that?
- 87 !!!