Last chance saloon - why classical liberals must support Truss and Coffey

According to the Guardian the Government is not in a hurry to publish its long-awaited tobacco control plan.

Insiders also say there is “no chance” that recommendations to reduce smoking that the ex-Barnardo’s chief executive Dr Javed Khan made in a government-commissioned review will ever be acted on.

See Thérèse Coffey to drop smoking action plan, insiders say.

I’ve written about the Khan review several times, noting the scandalously one-sided nature of the process and what Chris Snowdon called his “crackpot” ideas.

I’ve noted too how in recent weeks the tobacco control lobby has been getting increasingly twitchy about the new PM and her deputy, the recently appointed Secretary of State for Health, Thérèse Coffey.

Today’s story bears some of the hallmarks of ASH - from the snide references to the fact that Thérèse Coffey smokes ‘and has previously accepted hospitality from the tobacco industry’ to the quote by CEO Deborah Arnott.

A spokesman for the Department of Health doesn’t rule out making ‘progress’ with Khan’s recommendations so my guess is there is a battle going on within the department with, on one side, unelected civil servants with close links to the tobacco control industry, and on the other a principled politician who is trying to stay true to her anti-nanny state beliefs.

How that will resolve itself I’ve no idea but what is clear is that genuine liberals should support Truss and Coffey because the alternative - under a Labour or yet another Conservative leader - is almost certain to be more of the same nanny state paternalism that has dominated UK politics for decades.

There are bigger issues of course, notably the economy, but pushing back on unnecessary government intervention in our daily lives is important too and this may be the first time in decades we’ve had a PM and Secretary of State for Health who are of similar mind when it comes to less not more regulation and restrictions.

They are of course going to come under immense pressure to impose further measures on consumers and the industry so today's report is merely the first of many shots.

Fresh North East - another taxpayer-funded lobby group - has been active already, tweeting and tagging other members of their circle.

Whether this is a coordinated strategy I don’t know but it’s good to see they’re not happy!

At the same time we can’t be complacent because I’ve seen many times how quickly ministers and governments can reverse ferret. (Remember the smoking ban and plain packaging?)

Btw, I thought about writing to Thérèse Coffey at the DHSC but I have no confidence, if I write to her via email or even by post, that any correspondence from Forest will actually reach her.

That’s how little faith I have in the civil servants at the Department of Health, a conviction hardened by my experience of writing to Javed Khan during the course of his ‘review’.

In a democracy how sad is that? I’ll just have to find some other means of communication. Telepathy, perhaps?

Meanwhile, whatever your reservations about Liz Truss, classical liberals desperately need the PM and her deputy to succeed.

If like me you believe in freedom of choice and personal responsibility (that manifests itself politically with light touch regulation), this could be our last chance saloon because if they are forced out what's left?

A word of warning though. I remember when we thought plain packaging had been kicked into the long grass, only for it to return a year later not on health grounds but pure political expediency.

The same could happen again.

Also, when we have a Home Secretary proposing to make cannabis a class A drug it suggests that not everyone in the Cabinet is completely aligned to a more liberal approach to drugs, legal and illegal.

Nevertheless let's just be grateful for the noises emanating from the DHSC, even if they are driven by malcontents determined to railroad the Government towards a previous PM's smoke free ambition.

PS. I shall be discussing this with presenter Tom Swarbrick on LBC shortly after 4.00pm.

Comments

[Pat Nurse]

Sadly I suspect Coffey will do as she is told by ASH lobbyists who appear to run the department of health, which is probably why it is such a mess and why patient care is bottom of the list of priorities because too much has been squandered on lifestyle snobbery like anti smokerism.

The bonkers review was done at the request of unelected lobbyists but never announced as policy. ASH is lying again when it claims a U-turn, but dishonesty is its stock in trade to get what it wants when using and inciting the media to bully ministers to comply with its fanatical approach to smoker abuse for the dystopian vision it calls a "smoke free world."

[Bucko]

Too soon. So far Truss has spoken some good words but shown no sign she's in colntrol and is capable of sticking to anything.
I suspect the same will be true of all policies.
The alternatives are certainly no better, but I can't 'support' her, when so far all she's offered are enpty words and u-turns.
When she defunds ASH and the rest and actually scraps some nanny state policies and makes it stick, then I'll rethink my view. I'm not holding out any hopes