Parliamentary debate on ‘smokefree’ Britain vs. dental appointment
Thursday, January 11, 2024 at 10:37 MPs will this afternoon hold a ‘debate’ on achieving a ‘smokefree’ (sic) future.
It won’t be a debate at all, of course, because opposing voices will be noticeable by their absence, and when I say ‘MPs’ I would be surprised if more than a handful turn up.
Furthermore, I reckon I can predict who most of them will be.
Apart from Conservative MP Bob Blackman, chairman of the APPG on Smoking and Health (run by ASH), who has tabled this ‘debate’, the usual suspects will no doubt include Labour’s Alex Cunningham and Mary Kelly Foy, plus Maggie Throup and Steve Brine (Conservative).
To be fair, I’ve lost count of the number of similar ‘debates’, in the chamber or Westminster Hall, so hats off to Blackman et al for persistence, but if you’re hoping to hear anything new, forget it.
The Government will have to respond however so there could be an announcement about the Tobacco and Vapes Bill and the Government’s plan to ban the sale of tobacco to future generations of adults.
The Bill is currently being drafted and is expected to be published next month. Hopefully it will be properly scrutinised and, yes, debated, and amended accordingly.
Meanwhile Lib Dem peer Lord Rennard has tabled a parliamentary question ‘to ask His Majesty’s Government what progress they have made towards the ambition of creating a “smokefree” generation by 2030’.
This (oral) question is scheduled for January 25 so I imagine that both the debate and Rennard’s PQ have been coordinated to put pressure on the Government to act quickly, not that the prime minister and officials at the Department of Health need much encouragement.
Anyway, if there’s anything worth reporting from today’s ‘debate’ I’ll post it here.
I do however have a dental appointment and, given the choice, I think I’d prefer to listen to the dentist’s drill than Bob Blackman droning on about tobacco control.
Update: I was right about Mary Kelly Foy being there, but wrong about Alex Cunningham, Maggie Throup and Steve Brine who were absent.
In fact, I over-estimated the number of MPs I thought might be there. Including the chairman, Virendra Sharma, there were just eight MPs in attendance.
In addition to Bob Blackman and Mary Kelly Foy, they were Jim Shannon (DUP), Liz Twist (Labour), Preet Kaur Gill (Labour’s shadow public health minister), and public health minister Andrea Leadsom, all of whom supported the ‘smokefree’ ambition.
The only dissenting voice was another DUP MP, Ian Paisley, but his principal concern was the unintended consequences of crime in Northern Ireland and the problems that might arise if a generational ban was introduced there when, over the border in the Republic, tobacco could still be purchased legally at 18.
Reader Comments (3)
A good day to sneak through anything "smokefree" through Parliament, when the rest of the country is too rivetted by the horror of what was done to our postmasters and mistresses by the Post Office, to even notice
To be fair, Rose, the debate was announced on 20 December, long before the Post Office scandal hit the headlines. I agree however that, compared to the Post Office story, a generational ban on the sale of tobacco ought to be far from any government's list of priorities.
Also the provision of NHS dentists should be a greater priority for Government too. We have so few and so many people are suffering because they just cannot afford to go private.
There are so many more worthy matters for debate and funding than the political obsession with smoking but these are the times we live in.
Providing NHS dentists and decent healthcare is nannying but forcing people to shape up for the ideological vision of someone else's preferred future is bullying.
When people who have been free to choose how to live are suddenly forced to change their way of life by law, it's clear we no longer live in a Nanny State, which doesn't really care about the health of the nation or there would be better access to free healthcare when needed, is clearly now the Bully State and that is how it should be described in future.
Nanny has been replaced by the Jackboot. They don't even try to hide it anymore.