ASH's tobacco company stooge list is an own goal

That crazy list again: Chris Snowdon, who was named personally as a closet friend of tobacco, unwraps some of this.

The main mistake that ASH makes is that those on this huge list ... (h/tip Simon Clark)

Adam Smith Institute
Alcan Packaging
Alliance against IP Theft
American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union
Anti-Counterfeiting Group
Association of Convenience Stores
Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers
Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy (BASCAP)
British Brands Group
British Chamber of Commerce in Belgium
British Retail Consortium
Cato Institute
Confederation of British Industry
Confederation of European Community Cigarette Manufacturers
Deloitte
Democracy Institute
European Cigar Manufacturers’ Association
European Communities Trademark Association
European Policy Centre
European Policy Forum
European Rolling Papers Association
European Roundtable of Industrialists
European Risk Forum
European Smoking Tobacco Association
European Smokeless Tobacco Council
European Travel Retail Council
Federation of Small Businesses
FORCES
FOREST
Fraser Institute
Freedom to Choose (F2C)
Global Intellectual Property Centre
Independent Retail News
Institute of Economic Affairs
Interbrand
International Chamber of Commerce
International Trademark Association
ISBA (Incorporated Society of British Advertisers)
Leicester Asian Business Association (LABA)
Liberal Vision
London Economics
Markenverband
National Association of Cigarette Machine Operators
National Federation of Retail Newsagents
Nude Brand Consulting
Privacy International
Progressive Vision
Responsible Retailers
Rural Shops Alliance
Save Our Pubs and Clubs
Scottish Grocers Federation
Sinclair Collis
Trans-Atlantic Business Dialogue
Transatlantic Public Affairs
The Free Society
TICAP (The International Coalition Against Prohibition)
Tobacco Industry Platform
Tobacco Manufacturers Association (TMA)
Tobacco Retailers Alliance (TRA)
Tobacco Workers Alliance
Union ales Fabricants (Unifab)
Unite

.. all have their own interests to look after. If this means following the same line as tobacco, it does not make them tobacco company stooges. The plain fact is that a wide range of actors in society will find themselves in opposition to the interests of the narrow, purist tobacco control dogma.  The wider ASH casts its net to condemn people who oppose its demands, the less reasonable it will seem to the ordinary person in the street.

Incidentally I did learn something interesting from the ASH tobacco company stooge list:

British American Tobacco’s public relations in the UK are handled by Weber Shandwick, which also counts the Japanese Whaling Association and the Chinese Government as clients.

Did Weber Shandwick lose this contract then? Shame. But the Scottish Government still uses them anyway.

Smoking cessation will be under local authority control

The introduction to this year's UK National Smoking Cessation Conference is brief. It refers to a change of management in the field of smoking cessation:

As well as research updates and clinical innovations we will consider the implications of the shift of responsibility for the delivery of tobacco control and the commissioning of stop smoking services from the NHS to Local Authorities.

I am not too clear on the implications of this. Why are so many public health-related areas being taken out of the NHS remit and being given to local authorities? They are listed here and include mental health and dental services. Some observers fear the new system will mean that these services fall under normal local authority funding arrangements, i.e. means tested.

Although it empowers local authorities to commission public health services, this change doesn't seem to be anything to do with decentralising power. The government has employed MHP as a consultant in public health. Their report on the process can be seen here. Its introduction talks about holding the new public health service (local authorities) to account in meeting objectives that are created centrally, of course with the help of MHP. Its summary of key objectives starts by recommending all local authorities define public health in the same way. If this is decentralisation, it is very much from the top down.

Since smoking cessation is included in the package of services to be handed over to the local authorities, MHP's paragraph on the subject is instructive. It includes the information that 'NHS Walsall currently commissions the Walsall Stop Smoking Service which is achieving quit rates for participants in the scheme of 47.9%'. Information as to how long these people need to have stopped smoking before they are counted as successful is, if anywhere, buried in amongst pages of the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment for Walsall. I would hazard a guess at four weeks, especially as smoking cessation specialist Timothy Coleman has so recently told the world that patches don't work – but however long it is, it's remiss of them not to include this information in their report. However, since MHP's business is public relations, a dearth of vital detail is perhaps not surprising.

Contracts in Smoking Cessation and the Tobacco Display Ban: good money after bad?

An international public relations firm, Weber Shandwick, has won a double contract with the Scottish Government. In case you thought enough money had been spent on smoking cessation, this company, with offices in 77 countries, will 'signpost and motivate adult smokers wishing to quit to contact Smokeline'. An absolutely indispensable frontline service, wouldn't you agree?

The credentials of Weber Shandwick to do this kind of work are clear – they've been doing it for years. For example, two years ago they discovered that 9 out of 10 New Year's quitters in Australia were back on the fags by June, in a report for Pfizer.

The other contract is to educate the public about the tobacco display ban (Tobacco and Primary Medical Services Act), which was voted into law in January and will be enacted in October 2011. This Act is currently the subject of court action after a legal challenge from Imperial Tobacco: a verdict is awaited.

Employing PR companies seems an expensive way to convince the public to do something it doesn't want to do, or to sell unpopular government policy to the public. I look forward to Weber Shandwick winning a contract to sell a comprehensive hospital smoking ban package. I wonder how the people in the relevant Scottish Government departments feel about having their work of explaining policies and making them more publicly acceptable handed to an outside contractor. As a member of the public I find my confidence in the Scottish Government eroded a little, but my confidence in their tobacco policy is not high to start with.

Corporate Watch has a useful section on PR companies and the lobbying industry.

Afterthought: I've added to the sidebar our response to the Scottish Government's recent consultation on display and pricing in respect of the tobacco display ban legislation, submitted last month.