Freaky Friday
Cancer Research have been getting their abacus out again.
An estimated 28.6 billion cigarettes are smoked in Britain each year, the equivalent of 78 million a day, according to new analysis.
There are particularly high levels of consumption in more disadvantaged areas, with researchers calling for targeted public health efforts to tackle smoking rates.
Charities warned the “staggering figure” is a “stark reminder of the deadly toll of inaction”, and urged the Government to prioritise the Tobacco and Vapes Bill after Parliament’s summer recess.
The Cancer Research UK study, carried out by experts at University College London (UCL), used monthly Smoking Toolkit Study data from between 2022 and 2024.
On the back of this Hazel Cheeseman, chief executive of ASH, and I were interviewed yesterday on GB News.
According to Hazel, “The public want to see a world where smoking doesn’t exist anymore”, which is a remarkable generalisation but typical of someone who lives inside an anti-smoking bubble. As for tobacco being a legal product, she dismissed that as “one of those weird freaks of history”.
Anyway, I was unaware of the ‘study’ until GB News contacted me on Thursday with a brief summary of CRUK’s press release, which was embargoed until midnight that night. Our response, issued ten hours in advance of that, read:
“People smoke for a reason. Many smoke because they enjoy it, but others smoke to relieve the stress that may be caused by their circumstances or their environment
“Instead of curtailing people's freedoms with further restrictions on tobacco and smoking, the government should focus on the underlying reasons why a greater proportion of people from disadvantaged backgrounds are smokers.
“Address those issues and the government could conceivably achieve its smoke free target, but you can't force people to quit a habit that brings many of them comfort and pleasure.”
Our comments were ignored, most notably by the Press Association which provided the report that appeared in several publications, despite the fact that we sent it to the news desk, the lobby team, and no fewer than three PA correspondents.
The PA report - which read like a cut and paste job lifted straight from CRUK’s press release - prompted this email from me to the reporter credited with the story:
I am disappointed you didn't contact us or include a quote from Forest in your report. You did however include a comment from Hazel Cheeseman, CEO of Action on Smoking on Health (ASH) who naturally supported the CRUK study and the calls for further action against smoking.
As you can imagine, it's incredibly frustrating when reports like this appear, without a single opposing voice, especially when legislation to impose further restrictions on tobacco and other nicotine products is currently going through parliament. I don't think it's too much to ask that we should be given the opportunity to respond.
To be fair I got a reply but as readers know I’ve been sending similar emails to journalists for as long as I can remember. In an environment that is generally hostile to any defence of smoking, or smokers, I think we do quite well overall, but it’s an ongoing battle to get our voice heard.
Fair play then to GB News for inviting both ASH and Forest to discuss the issue. The channel gets a lot of stick for its perceived bias on political issues, but its presenters are no more opinionated than their counterparts on LBC or Talk Radio, or even some BBC presenters.
Meanwhile I can’t help feeling that the anti-tobacco lobby is getting a bit twitchy about the glacial progress of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill. It’s almost four months since the Bill had its third reading in the House of Commons, and three months since the second reading in the House of Lords. Some expected that the committee stage in the Lords would take place in May and the Bill might even receive Royal Assent before the summer recess, but it appears to have hit a temporary roadblock.
Given everything else that is going on it may be no more than a lack of parliamentary time this side of recess, but that itself indicates where the Tobacco and Vapes Bill sits in the Government’s list of priorities (not to mention the public’s – see Tackling smoking still not a top priority for the public).
As things stand it would take a monumental and unexpected u-turn to derail the Bill, but could it be that the argument put forward by Robert Buckland, a former Lord Chancellor and Solicitor General - that the Bill ‘represents an extraordinary and avoidable collision course with the law’ concerning Britain’s post-Brexit arrangements in Northern Ireland - is a factor in the delay?
Who knows? Either way, and despite Labour’s huge majority and the tacit support of many Conservative and Lib Dem MPs, the Bill has not been passed and until it is the battle won’t be over.
