Still no honours for titans of tobacco control

Still no honours for those titans of tobacco control, Deborah Arnott and Sheila Duffy.

Arnott has been director of Action and Smoking and Health since 2003, almost 20 years.

ASH recently celebrated its 50th anniversary so the latest honours list, announced today, would have been the perfect moment to recognise not just Deborah’s tireless work as the nation’s nanny but that of ASH as well.

Instead, nothing.

Duffy has been overlooked again too despite being director of ASH Scotland since 2008. Her predecessor Maureen Moore was awarded an OBE so it’s not as if there’s no precedent.

Meanwhile other less prominent figures in the anti-smoking movement have been recognised yet their groups are now defunct!

Thankfully Ailsa Rutter OBE, director of Fresh (formerly Smokefree North East), is still in post, beavering away, but it’s genuinely a puzzle to me that Arnott and Duffy have not been recognised.

Am I the only person championing them for a long overdue award? (See also: The waiting game continues for Deborah and Sheila.)

PS. To add insult to injury, a former CEO of the Tobacco Manufacturers Association, now working in another field, has just been awarded an OBE for services to promote international free trade.

Rejoice!