Liberal Vision

Enemies of enterprise seek control on tobacco

The ban on displaying tobacco products announced today is deeply disappointing. 

As noted over on the Tobacco Retailers Alliance website,  ”the policy to ban retail displays of tobacco in shops was a policy by the previous Labour government. Throughout the Bill’s passage through Parliament both the Conservatives and Lib Dems expressed concern that the policy was not based on sound evidence to prove that hiding tobacco out of sight in shops would cut youth smoking rates.

Andrew Lansley even cited the example of Canada, where youth smoking rates have remained steady despite a display ban has been phased in over a decade. Less than two weeks ago, Cancer Research published data from Ireland showing that youth smoking has actually increased since a display ban came into force 18 months ago.”  Read more here..

How the policy to ban retail displays of tobacco in shops came to be Coalition policy is therefore utterly bizarre – and worrying.

In similar vein, the following letter appeared in the Daily Telegraph (Letters page) today asking just how committed is this government to enterprise,  and how serious was David Cameron when he said, just a few days ago, that he would wage war on bureaucrats who concoct ridiculous rules and regulations.

SIR – Today, smokers are asked to observe No Smoking Day. They may also finally get to hear Government proposals that could ban the display of tobacco products in retail outlets, and only allow tobacco to be sold in plain, state-prescribed packaging.

If the Coalition is committed to defeating the enemies of enterprise, as David Cameron, the Prime Minister, claims, a good start would be to call a halt to the relentless campaign to “denormalise” smoking through an endless barrage of new controls, directives and diktats.

Mr Cameron claimed last weekend that he would wage war on bureaucrats who concoct ridiculous rules and regulations. Banning the branding of tobacco products or making cigarettes an under-the-counter product would be yet another victory for these very bureaucrats. Life would become more difficult for newsagents and tobacconists and easier for the providers of illicit tobacco to pass off their wares as legitimate.

We cannot yet be sure whether the Prime Minister’s commitment to combating regulation and red tape is truly serious. If his Government now unveils proposals to further restrict the sale and purchase of tobacco, it will be a clear sign that his new commitment to enterprise is little more than political rhetoric.

Patrick Basham
Director, Democracy Institute
Dr Eamonn Butler
Director, Adam Smith Institute
Donna Edmunds
Director of Research, Progressive Vision
Dr Helen Evans
Director, Nurses for Reform
Dr Tim Evans
Chairman, Economic Policy Centre
Daniel Hamilton
Director, Big Brother Watch
Angela Harbutt
Executive Director, Liberal Vision
Tim Knox
Acting Director, Centre for Policy Studies
Mark Littlewood
Director General, Institute of Economic Affairs
Matthew Sinclair
Director, The TaxPayers’ Alliance
Simon Richards
Director, The Freedom Association

Labour has taken 13 years of diabolical liberties with Britain

Hat tip: If you have not read it, I urge you to read Simon Heffer’s piece in yesterday’s Daily Telegraph. I dont agree with everything that Simon says on a regular basis, but he has it bang on right with his piece on how this Labour Government  have taken the piss with our civil liberties….

He says..

“A danger of the Government’s having made such a mess of the economy is that one risks forgetting all the other horrors for which it is responsible. Between now and the election I shall make a point of discussing some of these other factors that an intelligent voter should want to consider before casting his or her ballot. Despite stiff competition from matters like Europe, immigration, law and order and the near-destruction of our education system, one is perhaps worse than all the others: the insidious and at times quite terrifying assault on our civil liberties“……. 

“….(This) Government has created 4,300 new offences since it came to office. Many of these are either absurd (such as making it a crime to use a nuclear weapon) or they duplicate laws on the statute book. Some would say this highlights the ignorance of those who govern us. Maybe it does; but I would argue, too, that it shows their insatiable hunger for control” …..

“…….We live in a country where harmless people taking pictures of cathedrals are warned off by police invoking anti-terrorism laws; where the same legislation is used to regulate the positioning of wheelie bins; where smoking is banned even in public places whose owners wish to allow it; where the hunting of vermin is banned even on the land of those who wish to have it hunted. All these invasions of individual autonomy have taken place since 1997…”

That’s all straight from the Heffer’s mouth ….. read his full piece here.

The pubs that died after giving up smoking…

You may not be surprised to know that I am a supporter of the excellent SAVE OUR PUBS AND CLUBS CAMPAIGN. If you have not come across the campaign I urge you to visit the site and sign up.

I also urge you to read this article that appeared in the Daily Telegraph on Saturday. Vicki Woods writes about how her local pub died as a result of the smoking ban. It touched a nerve.

When I spent a splendidly frosty News Years Eve down in my home village with family, I learned that my local too had been closed. This was the pub that I sneaked out to at lunch time when I was in sixth form; the pub that had its finger on the pulse of the village; the pub that had survived every previous economic downturn with the slightest of shrugs. Now its gone. I am told that it too closed as a result of the smoking ban. It’s a rural pub – populated mainly by the locals – but since the smoking ban fewer and fewer went there. It used to be heaving – full of farmers and accountant types rubbing shoulders with plumbers and postmen. The last time I went there it was a shadow of its former self with just a  handful of locals inside and a couple of resiliant smokers standing outside in the cold summer drizzle.

According to Amendthesmokingban.com  52 pubs closed every week in 2009. You can read further information on the effect of the smoking ban here.

For those of you who have not come across it – the Save Our Pubs and Clubs campaign proposes amendments to the current smoking ban (not an overturn of the current ban) - that seem, in my book at least -  fair to both smokers and non-smokers alike – and include the following proposals….

Adopting the Spanish model – whereby venues with limited floor space can choose to be smoking or non-smoking, but venues larger than 1002 metres can have a designated smoking room if this constitutes less than 30% of total floor space, is fully partitioned and separated from the rest of the venue, and can be wholly avoided by non-smokers. smoking and non-smoking areas.

•    Allowing the smoking of tobacco only in venues that can secure a licence by ensuring an agreed level of ventilation and air quality in both

•    Allowing some discretion for local authorities in determining the nature and extent of smoking regulations.

I for one would like the mission to go further – to say that it should be the landlords decision as to whether one can smoke in any particular hostelry – not my decision, not the Governments, not the Councils.

But the Save Our Pubs and Clubs Campaign strikes me as something that smokers and non-smokers alike can get behind. It’s been running for a while now and gaining widespread support. Go have a look if you can.. www.amendthesmokingban.com