Smoking
The bossy state shouldn’t stop us buying cigarettes with pleasing packaging
The Government’s bid to make Britain that little bit more like Australia, in a bad way, by requiring cigarettes to be sold in plain white packaging may well be announced… Continue reading
21 Comments
Let Them Eat Gruel: The Government-Health-Security Complex Invades Your Kitchen - Spectator Blogs
Addressing the American people for the final time as President, Dwight Eisenhower warned that: This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the… Continue reading
35 Comments
Fag Burns
It sounds like an episode of The Thick of It: the government is ploughing ahead with its naff “Stoptober” initiative. Next month the country’s eight million smokers will be encouraged… Continue reading
11 Comments
A smoke to liberty
On the eve of the smoking ban five years ago, hundreds of liberty lovers came together to rebel and enjoy one last night of freedom. A reunion was held on… Continue reading
28 CommentsWhat’s Next: Plain Packaging for Booze?
Hats-off to Dick Puddlecote and Chris Snowdon for being quick to notice the latest absurdity being considered by the Commons health select committee: plain packaging for alcohol. Yes, really. The… Continue reading
15 CommentsYes, the NHS Must Treat Fat Folk
A truly repellent piece by Cristina Odone in the Telegraph in which she argues for NHS-rationing by liefestyle and wealth. That’s not quite how she puts it, for sure, but… Continue reading
39 CommentsThe Cost of Living Like This
Brother Jones and Fraser and Pete have already given you some of the useful charts from today’s budget. But the truth of this budget can be summarised quite simply: Everyone… Continue reading
9 CommentsCan the Dutch Government Really Be Abandoning Smokers to Their Fate?
Let us hope they are. A wailing letter to the editors of the Lancet, signed by Stanton Glantz and other anti-tobacco fanatics, complains that the Dutch government "is all but… Continue reading
11 CommentsA ban on smoking in cars should be unthinkable
It’s tempting to respond to the BMA’s extraordinary proposal to ban smoking in cars with a Thin End of the Wedge argument. Ban smoking even on the part of an… Continue reading
80 CommentsJunk Tobacco Science: Tar Heel Edition
As always, I commend Chris Snowdon’s blog, Velvet Glove, Iron Fist to you as among the very best places for common sense on tobacco issues. His latest post offers a… Continue reading
5 CommentsLady Nicotine and the Fat Wars
Well, whaddyaknow, turns out that a rise in obesity is one of the costs of government-sponsored attempts to make smoking tobacco less appealing. Swings and roundabouts. Acording to Chris Snowdon,… Continue reading
10 CommentsTobacco and the Laffer Curve
Lefties like to think the Laffer Curve never applies; righties are too fond of thinking it must apply to any tax in almost any circumstances. Both views are mistaken. Cutting… Continue reading
17 CommentsLucky Strikes in the War on Terror
Yesterday I suggested that the War on Smoking should be considered one theatre in the War on Drugs. Silly me for forgetting that it’s actually a subset of the War… Continue reading
6 CommentsSwings and Roundabouts in the Great, Endless Drug War
There’s good and bad news this month. The disappointing news is that the latest surveys suggest only one in five American high schoolers smokes tobacco even occasionally. The good news… Continue reading
4 CommentsThe Glory Days of Advertising
The More Doctors Smoke Camels Than Any Other Cigarette! advertisement is, I think, pretty familiar. Those were the days! Here’s a terrific collection of splendid (and some not so splendid)… Continue reading
2 CommentsPolitician of the Year
Andrew Stuttaford says Alexei Kudrin is Finance Minister of the year but, surely, that understates matters? Russia’s finance minister has told people to smoke and drink more, explaining that higher… Continue reading
3 CommentsSmoking Bans = Fewer Heart Attacks? Up To A Point, Lord Copper
Oh my, what a credulous press corps we have. Selectively credulous that is. Put it this way: if a report compiled by a Philip Morris board member suggested smoking was… Continue reading
36 CommentsSmokers are Patriots
These days, when one looks back at the stratospheric rates of income tax levied in the 1970s it’s commonplace to sympathise with those who sought to avoid such punitive taxation.… Continue reading
22 CommentsLife in Donegal
Frankly, one would be disappointed if this sort of caper weren’t being run in Donegal: A 72-year-old Donegal man who denied running an illegal public bar in his shed, has… Continue reading
7 Comments