Shameful!
Wednesday, December 14, 2022 at 9:15 I was on LBC last night talking to Iain Dale.
The final hour of his show was devoted to a phone-in about the new law in New Zealand that will progressively ban the sale of tobacco to young and then not so young adults.
(In 30 years you will have to be 43 before you are legally permitted to buy cigarettes, should they still exist.)
I followed Ailsa Rutter, director of the anti-smoking group Fresh North East, who was positively giddy about the new policy, although she stopped short of saying the UK should follow suit.
Instead she supported raising the age of sale to 21. Like her counterpart at ASH she also called on the Government to fund anti-smoking campaigns by imposing a levy on the tobacco companies.
My comments were focussed largely on the fact that banning younger adults from buying cigarettes legally won’t stop people smoking.
It will merely drive the sale of cigarettes underground with consumers buying unregulated cigarettes on the black market, like any other prohibited product. (“How’s the war on illegal drugs going?”, I asked.)
I added that the new law will infantilise future generations and ultimately the entire population. What next? Alcohol?
When I had finished and before he took calls Iain read out a comment that had been sent in by a listener.
Malcolm in Bodmin says, ‘Jesus, Iain, what the hell are you doing having this guy on? Shameful.’
To which he replied:
Nothing shameful about it at all. I’d love you to phone in, Malcolm, and tell me what he said that was so shameful. He was putting a libertarian argument forward. I agree with a lot of what he said. I’m not a smoker, I’ve never been a smoker, I hate being in the company of smokers, but if something’s legal I would defend someone’s right to do it. Is that controversial? Is that shameful? 0345 6060973.
A podcast of the show is available on Global Player and other platforms. (To find it Google ‘Iain Dale The Whole Show’.) The discussion about smoking starts (on Global Player) at 1:41:43.
Update: My Forest Ireland colleague John Mallon discussed the New Zealand policy on Newstalk Breakfast this morning.
Newstalk is Ireland’s biggest independent radio station.
Reader Comments (3)
It is quite shameful in my opinion to say out loud that he doesn't like to be in the company of smokers even if he supports legal consumerism.
Smokers are still smokers even when they are not smoking. It just goes to show how the stigmatisation campaign has moved from encouraging people to hate not just the sin but the sinner too.
That Iain Dale could say out loud that he hates being in the company of smokers as a means to defend himself or virtue signal is what I find shocking because he could so easily say it.
Imagine changing the word "smoker" to "gay" "Muslim" "Jew" "single parent" etc.. and it doesn't sound quite as heroic does it.
The hate campaign against people who smoke is the only thing that is shameful about this issue.
Pat, I must defend Iain who is married to a smoker so what I’m sure he meant is that he doesn’t like being around people who are smoking, which is rather different.
The impressive thing is that although he has an aversion to smoking (which is shared by many people) Iain has never to my knowledge supported smoking bans or calls to prohibit the sale of tobacco. In that sense he is a true libertarian because he is willing to defend something that he doesn’t like.
Being married to a smoker also suggests a tolerance of smokers if not smoking!
Update: Iain’s husband quit smoking 5-6 years ago and is now “addicted” (Iain’s word) to IQOS (PMI’s heated tobacco product).
I wish in that case that he could distinguish between smoker and smoking even if his husband is no longer a smoker but more accurately a vaper.
"Addicted" is a strong word for a habit that is easy to quit if one really wants to and the choice to quit is theirs. I am sure Iain doesn't intend to be offensive with every word he utters to describe smokers but he really should mind his language because it is very offensive.