Like sheep, where Wales goes other home nations may follow
Sunday, August 21, 2022 at 15:45 As a serial driver of tobacco control measures the Welsh Government is often over-looked and under-estimated.
Under Mark Drakeford, first minister of Wales and leader of Welsh Labour since 2018, Wales has led the race to ban smoking in school grounds, public playgrounds and hospital grounds.
Drakeford’s government has also banned smoking in holiday and temporary accommodation, and from September 1 smoking will be prohibited in mental health units (denying many patients the personal autonomy they crave).
In recent years smoking bans have also been introduced on several beaches in Wales, although those decisions have been made by local authorities not national government.
Curiously then a recent Welsh Government strategy document with a foreword by Lynne Neagle, deputy minister for mental health and wellbeing, is surprisingly light on further measures to achieve a ‘smoke-free Wales’ by 2030.
Don’t get me wrong, compared to ‘The Khan review: making smoking obsolete’ with its 14 recommendations, it’s a relief to read something as woolly as ‘A smoke-free Wales: Our long-term tobacco control strategy’ but as long as Drakeford is at the helm I wouldn’t be complacent.
This after all is the man who, as health minister, proposed banning the use of e-cigarettes in public places.
In 2018, as first minister, he proposed a ban on smoking in town and city centres and two years later his own health secretary committed to banning smoking outside cafes, pubs and restaurants.
The fact that none of these policies has been introduced probably has more to do with other factors such as the pandemic rather than a loss of nerve on Drakeford’s part, so it would be foolish to think the threat has gone away.
Anyway, BBC Wales belatedly covered the Welsh Government’s tobacco control strategy in a report published online yesterday.
Featuring quotes by Lynne Neagle, Suzanne Cass, chief executive of ASH Wales, and Katie Till, public affairs manager in Wales for Cancer Research UK, it also included a comment by me:
“Tobacco is a legal product and if adults choose to smoke that's a matter for them, not government. They cannot be forced to quit.
“The best way to further reduce smoking rates is not by introducing more anti-smoking measures but by educating young people about the health risks of smoking and encouraging existing smokers to switch to reduced risk products like e-cigarettes.”
Curiously the reference to reduced risk products was initially left out but was added after I drew attention to the omission on Twitter.
I did however acknowledge the fact that BBC Wales at least took the trouble to contact Forest for a quote.
However the BBC report also followed the common practice of ignoring adults who enjoy smoking and don’t want to quit in favour of speaking to an ex-smoker who said “I'm not coughing up mucus now, I generally feel healthier and I can taste my food”, and a reluctant social smoker:
Ruth Billingham, 42, from Cardiff, has been smoking on and off since she was a teenager.
She had long periods of not smoking, and has gone back to it due in social situations.
She said: "When I started smoking you could smoke inside pubs. I think it's a good thing that people aren't allowed to smoke in public places because I definitely would not have smoked as much as I have.
“At times when I've given up, I might start again because I'm on a night out, and it's just easy to have a cigarette.
“I would find it frustrating that I couldn't smoke outdoors. However, I do think in the long term it would be better for me because I wouldn't be able to smoke."
Are those views representative of most smokers? They’re probably representative of some smokers (especially those who are so weak-willed they need government intervention to help them quit), but the majority? I think not.
Unfortunately, as well giving greater power and influence to public health professionals, the pandemic has probably increased some people’s belief that responsibility for health (individual as well as public) should be sub-contracted to government.
In practise that means giving more power to politicians who will then use it to impose even greater restrictions on our lifestyles, whether that be eating, drinking or smoking.
Devolved governments love to be one step ahead of their neighbours, England especially, and tobacco control is a classic example of devolution in action.
Scotland was the first of the home nations to introduce an indoor workplace smoking ban. Now it’s Wales that is leading the ‘race’ to ban smoking in outdoor public places.
How that will pan out remains to be seen but don’t dismiss the impact of tobacco control policies in Wales on the rest of the UK.
See Smoking: Can Wales reach smoke-free status by 2030? (BBC Wales)
Reader Comments (3)
"Curiously then a recent Welsh Government strategy document with a foreword by Lynne Neagle, deputy minister for mental health and wellbeing, is surprisingly light on further measures to achieve a ‘smoke-free Wales’ by 2030."
It could be something to do with this.
So many awkward studies about smoking and COVID-19
"The largest epidemiological study of its kind was published in Nicotine and Tobacco Research a few days ago. It involved 2.4 million people in California and it found that smokers were not only less likely to get infected but were less likely to be hospitalised, admitted to intensive care and die as well."
https://velvetgloveironfist.blogspot.com/2022/04/so-many-awkward-studies-about-smoking.html
Tricky.
Drakeford is also an extremist when it comes to agriculture as anyone who follows Welsh farmer Gareth Wynn Jones knows. I think the Welsh are largely fed up of him and his strict COVID rules didn't do him any favours either.
We have all met self hating smokers who say they want to quit as they light up yet another cigarette because in reality they don't, but feel bad because of the state and it's infrastructure keep telling them to feel bad about themselves. I thought most of them had moved to the vaping fraternity but clearly not all of them.
Those that stick to cigs when they say they want to quit but don't seek out alternatives are kidding themselves and bringing the rest of us down with them. They think they need Government to stop them doing what they are unwilling to do themselves because that has been the mantra from well paid activists posing as "charities" for decades. What was that about telling a simple lie long enough until it becomes truth?
The problem is what next? If government believes people are too stupid or weak to stop smoking, and therefore Draconian laws are needed to stop them, it cannot be a great leap to say some people are too thick to vote "the right way when they really want the other party they didn't vote for" so maybe voting will become as elitist as enjoying so called public spaces that are clearly only for the gentrified puritan who thinks the right way and lives a state approved lifestyle.
After all, how many times have Brexit voters' intelligence been attacked and how many have been told they didn't really want to vote for leaving the EU but were so weak and/or stupid they were conned by the propaganda.
It is a very socially exclusive and dangerously divisive future that the knee-jerk politicians led by activists are imposing on our children and grandchildren. I am pleased that I will not live to see it and if smoking shortens my life then that's a blessing in disguise.
Meanwhile, If find if I don't enjoy smoking I cut down a lot so that every cigarette I smoke can be fully enjoyed rather than just smoking to fill time or because of habit. That's why I am down to 7 a day and have been for months. If I wanted to quit, I would, but I don't so I have found a way to make it even more enjoyable and hand on heart I can say I savour every single one in the same way others savor their favourite wine or other treat.
Magic mushrooms set to become UK’s ultimate weapon against depression
20 August 2022
"Meanwhile, British start-up Clerkenwell Health is about to begin trials in the use of the same compound – psilocybin – to help people cope with a terminal diagnosis, and is exploring the use of psychedelics for depression and quitting smoking."
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/08/20/magic-mushrooms-set-become-uks-ultimate-weapon-against-depression/
Whatever next?