The Guardian today reports that Rishi Sunak is ‘considering introducing some of world’s toughest anti-smoking measures to effectively ban next generation from ever buying cigarettes’.
Measures include a New Zealand style ban on future generations being allowed to buy cigarettes, to be achieved by raising the age of sale by one year every year until no-one can legally purchase tobacco.
Apparently, a ban on smoking in beer gardens and parks is also on the agenda.
Naturally, the Guardian didn’t seek a response from anyone opposed to such policies. Forest has however been quoted by, among others, the Press Association, The Sun, Independent, i, London Evening Standard, Daily Record, STV, and the Financial Times.
According to the FT, ‘Prime minister’s latest effort to tackle falling ratings could trigger party backlash’:
Simon Clark, director of the smokers’ group Forest, said if Sunak decided to introduce these measures “it will be a Conservative government in name only”, taking the “nanny state to another level”.
“Prohibiting the sale of cigarettes to future generations of adults won’t stop people smoking,” he said, “it will simply drive the sale of cigarettes underground and into the hands of criminal gangs.”
I can’t say I’m hugely surprised by this turn of events. In May Sunak was reported to have rejected George Osborne’s call to ban smoking, which we obviously welcomed.
I wasn’t completely convinced, though, and even after the Government opposed an amendment to the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill that would have banned smoking in licensed pavement areas, I warned:
I remember all too well when, a few months before the 2015 general election, David Cameron's government suddenly decided to introduce plain packaging, having previously kicked it into the long grass.
Labour and the anti-smoking lobby were pushing hard for plain packaging and it was said that Cameron didn't want it to be an election issue, hence the famous 'barnacles off the boat' strategy.
It wouldn't surprise me if Rishi Sunak adopted a similar tactic ahead of the next election, with the bonus that it would make the Government appear proactive, albeit not in a good way if you believe that government should butt out of our lives as much as possible.
Fingers crossed that won't happen, but I've lost faith in politicians and this Government has performed so many u-turns, what's another one to them?
By guess is that officials in Number Ten are flying a kite to see how the public (and the party) react.
What is clear is that the Conservative Party under its present leadership has no direction, or clear principles.
They are so far behind in the polls (spot the connection?) that Sunak and his advisors are thrashing around and will consider almost anything in a desperate attempt to seize the initiative with headline grabbing initiatives.
(As an aside, it’s interesting that this story was given to the Guardian, not the Telegraph or even The Times.)
The Tories, of course, have always been a party dominated not by libertarians, who represent a very small percentage the membership, nor by authoritarians (who are also a relatively small group within the party), but by paternalists.
Traditionally however Conservatives have also been pragmatic (none more so than Mrs Thatcher) but the sort of anti-smoking measures currently being considered go way beyond pragmatism. They smell, quite simply, of desperation.
Worse, targeting an ever decreasing minority of the population, like smokers, smacks of bullying. Ironically, given that most smokers are from lower socio-economic backgrounds, there’s also a hint of class warfare, the ‘comfortable’ middle class dictating how the poorer working class should live their lives.
It’s worth pointing out too that no-one has actually voted for these policies. At the very least, therefore, Sunak should have the guts to include them in the party’s election manifesto next year.
Unfortunately, there’s every chance that, in the race to outdo one another, Labour might strive to go even further, although it’s hard to see how they could, beyond a ban on the sale of cigarettes to all age groups (as requested by Philip Morris, funnily enough).
Anyway, by coincidence (and with great foresight!), Forest is hosting a panel discussion at the Conservative party conference on Monday 2nd October entitled ‘Smoking Gun: The infantilisation of Britain’.
More on this next week.
See: Rishi Sunak considers banning cigarettes for next generation (Guardian)
Update: I discussed this story on LBC on Saturday. Also on the programme: Hazel Cheeseman, deputy CEO of ASH.