Useful idiots

In exactly one month Hazel Cheeseman, currently deputy chief executive of ASH, will step up and become CEO.

I’ll have more to say when that moment arrives but today, following the publication of a survey that ‘estimates’ that 'almost one million youngsters have tried vaping this year', Cheeseman is quoted saying:

“E-cigarettes must be strictly regulated so their use is limited to the purpose they were created for, as an effective quitting aid for adult smokers.”

In other words, there is only one reason why any adult should vape, and that’s to quit smoking. And once they've stopped smoking? What then?

It truly amazes me that many vaping advocates still quote ASH as if they're an ally, despite the group's very obvious endgame – the eradication of smoking and all recreational nicotine products, including e-cigarettes.

Despite that and without, it seems, a care in the world, they happily repost comments and 'analysis' commissioned by ASH and other anti-smoking organisations as if they've been handed down on tablets from Mount Sinai.

Yesterday, for example, a leading vaping advocate reposted a tweet by Cheeseman on the subject of keeping people’s home ‘smokefree’ (sic).

According to Hazel, it’s ‘reassuring that a switch to vaping can help’.

The person concerned, who I won't name (although I do like him, to be fair) is far from the only guilty party, but my issue is this.

Disseminating and effectively approving comments and research by ASH and other anti-smoking activists when it suits your pro-vaping agenda is a risky strategy because you’re going to look a bit foolish when they keep demanding more and more restrictions on the sale and consumption of all nicotine devices, including e-cigarettes.

Anyway, this could be a much longer article – naming and shaming the many useful idiots involved – but that grand opus will have to wait.

For the moment, I've got better things to do.