Are Truss and Coffey making tobacco control twitchy?

I sense that tobacco control campaigners may be getting a bit twitchy about the PM and her deputy who is also the new Secretary of State for Health.

For example, it was reported yesterday that 'Liz Truss could scrap anti-obesity strategy in drive to cut red tape' (Guardian).

It’s not unusual for ASH to include non smoking-related reports in their Daily News bulletin, but this particular headline and story stood out and I suspect that CEO Deborah Arnott shares the concern expressed by other ‘public health’ activists.

It remains to be seen whether a less interventionist approach will be adopted by government in areas such as smoking, drinking and obesity but it was interesting to read Arnott's response to last week’s ‘story’ that Thérèse Coffey, our new deputy PM and health secretary, voted for an amendment to the smoking ban, albeit 13 years ago.

As I mentioned when I wrote about it here (five days before the Daily Mirror's 'exclusive' report), Coffey also voted against plain packaging of tobacco.

Speaking to the Mirror, an emollient Arnott told the paper:

“The Secretary of State’s history on tobacco may not seem encouraging, but our experience is that ministers, once in the hot seat in the Department of Health, soon understand the need to get to grips with smoking.”

Read into that what you will but I love the phrases: "once in the hot seat" and “soon understand”.

My interpretation of what happens inside the Department of Health is that ministers either start from a position of paternalism (which is why they got the job in the first place) and become increasingly interventionist on lifestyle issues, or they begin from a more liberal standpoint only to succumb to the ‘advice’ of civil servants, some of whom have been in the department far longer than any minister and may have developed close relationships with partisan lobbyists like ASH.

Truth is, far from steering the department, ministers are often no more than passengers. Those in the driving seat are unelected mandarins and we know how influential they can be (even when working from home).

There are times too when politicians clearly see the Department of Health as a stepping stone to something greater – Downing Street perhaps - and are determined to leave a legacy before moving on.

Reforming the NHS to any significant extent is clearly off the agenda. It’s far too big a task and far too risky because it could not only destroy a promising career but could also spell disaster for the party because of the country’s weird infatuation with that institution.

Instead ministers and civil servants target issues like smoking, drinking and obesity which are relatively low risk in electoral terms.

Another thing that will happen is that from day one new ministers will be bombarded with correspondence from the public health lobby.

A few years ago a series of Freedom of Information requests (by another party) uncovered a remarkable number of emails from ASH to the Department of Health.

We joked about it at the time but I don’t know why they don’t just share an office. It would be quicker and more convenient all round.

That aside, and in the spirit of Brexit, let’s hope Thérèse Coffey and her new health ministers do take back control … of the Department of Health. As I wrote after the UK finally left the EU:

Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union is a victory for democracy. Let’s not undermine it by allowing power to remain in the hands of a few unelected mandarins and activists who – with the help of a compliant parliament – are determined to dictate how the rest of us live our lives.

‘It’s time to take back control of our lifestyles’ (Brexit Watch, March 6, 2020)

I hope too that Coffey will resist the inevitable pressure to act on lifestyle issues - under the guise no doubt of levelling up - but it’s difficult to predict which way ministers will go once they’ve spent several months listening to public health zealots and their enablers in government.

Meanwhile it didn’t take long for comments to be made about Coffey’s own lifestyle - her weight, for example, and the fact that photos exist of her drinking and smoking a cigar. (The horror! The horror!)

I can’t be the only one to suspect a subliminal or deliberate attempt to influence her policymaking in the weeks and months ahead but as Forest will also make clear to the new Secretary of State for Health, tackling smoking, obesity and the misuse of alcohol are NOT considered to be priorities by the public who repeatedly place them last when given a list of issues for government and the NHS to prioritise.

But more on that another time.

Comments

[Pat Nurse]

Arnott is basically telling the health minister to do as she is told. As you say, politicians are passengers but lobbyists hiding behind charity status or the civil service have the real power. That's why they are there and why they do not trust in the lottery that is to stand for election because they would lose.

It's good that Truss and Coffey have backtracked from the metropolitan plan to bully fat people and raise food prices on items that the snobs find distasteful but I fear nothing can be done to take the bullies' jackboot off the smoker's neck.

As Debs implies, ASH and its stooges run the health department and there is absolutely nothing the little consumer or ordinary voter can do about it.

Fascism rules. Democracy and freedom are dying concepts. Truss's Conservatives will only get my vote if they can tackle these control freaks otherwise they only prove that voting is worthless, democracy is dead, and therefore it doesn't matter which party wins, the tyrannical lobbyists still run the country.