You couldn't make it up!
Wednesday, March 20, 2024 at 19:10 The Government finally introduced the Tobacco and Vapes Bill in the Commons today.
After weeks of speculation, the Department of Health and Social Care announced it in a press release embargoed until midnight last night. (See – Smokefree generation one step closer as bill introduced.)
Forest’s response was quoted in full by inews:
“The government has no mandate to ban the sale of tobacco to adults.
“The policy has never featured in a single election manifesto, and less than a year ago the government dismissed the idea as 'too big a departure' and said it wasn't going to pursue it.
"What's changed, apart from Rishi Sunak's increasingly desperate attempts to leave a personal legacy?
“No-one wants children to smoke, but the idea that government should take away people's freedom to choose long after they have grown up is absurd.
“Instead of rushing this vanity project through parliament, the prime minister should include the policy in the Tories’ election manifesto and let the people decide.”
Via the Press Association, an edited version of that quote was reported by the Independent, Daily Express, Daily Mail, plus local and regional newspapers around the country.
We were also quoted on the BBC News website (UK smoking ban for those born after 2009 starts journey into law).
In general though I was surprised by how little coverage the first reading of the Bill received. This, after all, is one of Rishi Sunak’s flagship policies, without which he will leave office with almost nothing to show for his two years as PM.
Instead, reports of the Bill seems to have been marginalised by another story, the results of a new 'landmark' study by scientists at University College London that suggest that e-cigarettes "might not be as harmless as originally thought".
I won't go into the details here. All I'll say is, the headlines are way over the top and represent unnecessary scaremongering. For example:
- Vaping ‘linked to cancer and damages body like smoking’ (The Times)
- Vaping 'causes same DNA changes as smoking' and could lead to cancer (Daily Express)
- Vapers suffer ‘similar’ DNA damage to smokers – and it’s linked to lung cancer (The Sun)
- Vaping causes similar DNA damage to smoking - as study links e-cigarettes to cancer risk (Sky News)
- Fears vaping could cause CANCER: Shock study reveals e-cigs damage DNA just like smoking (Daily Mail)
But wait. According to Dr Ian Walker, executive director of policy at Cancer Research UK, "This study contributes to our understanding of e-cigarettes, but it does not show that e-cigarettes cause cancer" [my emphasis].
Try telling the headline writers!
Thankfully, who better to bring a calm head to the situation than Maria Caulfield, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the DHSC. I didn't see it but according to The Times:
Asked to "look down the lens and tell him", she issued a direct appeal to her husband on Sky News to "stop vaping".
What?!
As a minister in a government that has put vaping at the forefront of its smoke free ambition, isn't she supposed to be persuading smokers to Swap to Stop (ie switch to vaping), not pleading with her nearest and dearest to quit the very thing that helped him stop smoking?
You couldn't make it up!
Full story: Health minister begs husband to stop vaping during live interview (Sky News)
Reader Comments (3)
We did say that once they had criminalised smokers and smoking, then suddenly there would be reports claiming vaping is "not as safe as we once thought" and now its all out war on vaping too.
Truth doesn't matter when pushing ideology or else the media, Government and lobbyists would not still be pushing the claims about second hand smoke when we know the longest study ever produced showed no evidence that "passive smoking" causes lung cancer in non smokers.
Vaping advocates should have fought for their product of choice on the grounds of freedom of choice with us instead of fighting against us and trying to win favour from healthists by throwing us and the choice to smoke under the bus by claiming "ecigs save lives." No one of power and influence really believes that.
As they have said many times and we agree, It is not about health. It is about choice and the right to make your own choices about how to live your adult life.
“The government has no mandate to ban the sale of tobacco to adults.
[...]
“Instead of rushing this vanity project through parliament, the prime minister should include the policy in the Tories’ election manifesto and let the people decide.”
If you get your wish:
Most people in the UK do not smoke.
Recent 'polls' say the majority of people in the UK support the generational tobacco ban (Because they don't smoke, probably, if you put any stock in these polls).
When the voters go to the polls, their decision will not be based on this minor policy that only affects a small percentage of the population. There are much more serious issues that people have a problem with at the moment.
Both main political parties support the generational tobacco ban, so if they cared about mandates, both parties would include this in their manifesto.
Whoever was voted into power, would then have the mandate that you are requesting
When the ban comes in, the party in power says "There you go Clark, we got the mandate you requested and we're now bringing in the ban, presumably with your full support"
You should be arguing that no political party should have the right to decide if adults smoke or not. You should be fighting for the rights of adults to make their own choices, not to be controlled by tyranny of the majority style democracy
Asking for a mandate is just doing the prohibitionists job for them, by asking the Government to put themselves in a position where they can actually say that the ban was voted for by the people and they are just doing what they have been asked to do.
I think this is picking the wrong battle
"In the 1970s, attempts were made to show that inhaling tobacco smoke would cause lung cancer in mice, rats, hamsters, dogs, and monkeys. Although researchers used thousands of animals, the Inhalation of tobacco smoke, even over the lifetime of the animals, failed to reproduce the disease." (International Journal of Toxicology, July 2007).
Many people use and enjoy tobacco for weight control, improved concentration, and reduced anxiety and depression. There has never been a randomized study of the effects of tobacco humans--only observational studies, which can never demonstrate causality.
It is quite possible, contrary to what is generally thought, that people who smoke are, in fact, reducing factors that would, if they didn't smoke, diminish their health and longevity.
Many people who never smoked unfortunately die young; smokers who quit often do not experience better health; and some smokers who started in adolescence live healthy lives into their 80s and 90s.