Revisiting Liberal Vision ...

And why not – some big names from Tobacco Control have done so ... (see comments)

Europe launches 'Ex-smokers are unstoppable', 3 year campaign

(and in case you think that is grotesque, try this)

The three-year anti-smoking campaign involves an interactive programme called iCoach, an application designed to encourage smokers to keep on trying to stop smoking. EU officers will be encouraged to lead by example and register with iCoach before it is let loose on the public. It has been published in all the European languages (you can see why the campaign is expected to cost 16 million euros).

As well as putting pressure on officers to sign up to this hideously expensive campaign in order to set an example to lesser mortals who don't work for it, EU Health Commissioner John Dalli also looks forward to extending legislation restricting the use of smokeless tobacco products. So not only will they resort to bullying EU employees, they will also seek to ban e-cigarettes and similar products and push for further restrictions on the marketing and selling of tobacco.

The more I read the less I understand how the smoking cessation racket has been sold on the public. Courtesy of Rick S's comment yesterday, have a look at this on the views of Robert West from 2007. Robert West is a professional anti-tobacco activist, as the article makes clear. Interviewed at the very start of the English smoking ban, he says this:

The experience of the smoking ban in Ireland and elsewhere suggests that the ban itself will have limited impact on the government target of 21 per cent smoking prevalence by 2010. Around 25 per cent of people in England admit to smoking cigarettes. To cut this figure by one per cent, every single smoker in the country would have to try to stop, and at least half of them would have to use effective treatments to help them do it.

“The government is looking for a miracle, basically. But the point is not whether we will reach arbitrary targets but the fact that for every one per cent of smokers we see about 3,000 unnecessary deaths per year. Everything we can do to bring down the figure means a lot of suffering prevented.”

Even a professional anti-smoker believes that the success rate in smoking cessation is very low. People like West truly believe that only by all smokers attempting to stop smoking at the same time can a drop of 1 per cent in the smoking rate be achieved, and that this will somehow save 3,000 lives a year. The last sentence seems to be mere window dressing. If that's what it takes to bring smoking rates down, they clearly can't be coming down very much, and all the efforts going into smoking cessation programmes are doing little besides boosting pharmaceutical takings, and propping up the careers of professional anti-smoking activists like Robert West.

English display ban: open letter to Vince Cable MP leads to open warfare

Vince Cable is on the receiving end of this open letter from Peter Kellner (of Yougov) published in the New Statesman, who hopes to influence the UK government not to go back on the tobacco display ban, which became law late last year. It is hoped that Mr Cable will read it in full, including public reactions. Everything happens here: we not only hear directly from Martin Dockrell of Action on Smoking and Health, and Robert West, of the UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies, a professor with very impressive letters after his name and the Chairman of NHS Warwickshire, but one poster calls them all liars and challenges them to open court.

Funny how all these worthies disappear after Friday lunchtime ...

Particularly interesting was this comment from another participant:

... wouldn't Vince Cable be better served by asking all tobacco companies and major retailers to sit round a table with HMRC (collectors of excise revenue), Dept of Health and all other interested Govt Departments (eg Defra - cigarette litter is the UK's no 1 litter problem) to agree a co-ordinated plan of "attack" which addresses at least:

• communication of the health risks
• prevention of access to youth
• raising awareness of smoking cessation products and reduced harm products - eg e-cigs and other smokeless products
• tackling smuggled and counterfeit product
• changing smokers' littering behaviour

This is so sensible, but doomed from the start because the World Health Organisation's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control won't allow tobacco companies any involvement in tobacco policy. Not allowed. Not permitted. No can do. The agreement is binding on participating countries.

This participant continues:

If that was done there'd be no need to choose between the smoking lobby and the British people as Peter Kellner invites Vince Cable to do – and isn't an inclusive society what we pride ourselves on being?

Isn't it wonderful when someone refers to inclusiveness as positive. Sadly, these ideas are out of line with WHO FCTC thinking: social inclusiveness and full democratic participation are less important than the WHO's global agenda.

Dave Atherton is political liaison officer of Freedom to Choose (UK). His contribution to this thread is particularly worthy of note and includes plenty of supporting information.