Joe Jackson and the common enemy

Further to yesterday's post (E-cigs, I'm not an expert but …) musician Joe Jackson has responded to one of the comments:

I agree with the last post - we SHOULD all unite in the common cause of fairness, a free market, and getting the 'Public Health' monster off our backs. Unfortunately too many people can't see the wood for the trees. I think it's INEVITABLE that vapers and the producers of e-cigs should try to define themselves AGAINST, rather than with, smoking and smokers.

If you are marketing e-cigs, why would you not take advantage of the enormous power of the antismoking industry and use it in your own favour? And if you vape rather than smoke, of course you're going to think it's because e-cigs are 'better' - healthier, less stinky, whatever. OK, not all vapers, but many. Imagine that for decades, we had been bombarded with negative propaganda and restrictions on drinking coffee; and many people had therefore given it up and now have orange juice with their breakfast instead. Do you really expect 'juicers' to stand up for 'coffeers'?

I'm allergic to dogs, but if someone tried to pass a total dog ban, I would oppose it, on principle. But how many people can see beyond the end of their own nose, and think that way? I'd have to say, not many, and that is one of the most depressing things I've learned from getting involved in the whole smoking issue. The pub industry, for instance, should have fought the smoking ban en masse, on principle - the principle of being able to run their pubs how they want - but all they cared about was whether their own business would suffer if there wasn't a 'level playing field'.

I don't think many smokers or vapers think they have a common cause. But we do have a common enemy, and the only hopeful thing I see in Public Health attacking vaping is that it makes their dishonesty and nastiness more and more obvious. I think we will at some point see a general (delayed) reaction against the excesses of the healthist nanny state, but we still have a way to go.

Joe makes a lot of points, many of which I agree with. In particular, I support his contention that smokers and vapers have a common enemy.

And not just smokers and vapers. People who enjoy alcohol, fatty food or dairy products, not to mention sugary drinks.

The common enemy are politicians and 'public health' campaigners who think they know what's best for us and will do anything in their power to dictate how ordinary, law-abiding adults live their lives.

A handful might revel in being "outlaws" but the overwhelming majority of people don't want to live like that. That's why a group like Forest exists to fight excessive legislation whenever and wherever it raises its head. We want to be part of society not outlawed from it.

The 'good' news is, we have a plan for a campaign that will fight our "common enemy" on a broader front. Hopefully it will unite not only smokers and vapers but everyone who feels their choices are being threatened by an increasingly intrusive nanny/bully state.

It's called Action on Consumer Choice.

Watch this space.