Why Cable?

Crikey! I nearly missed this.

YouGov pollster President, Peter Kellner, has finally abandoned any pretence at impartiality with a desperate plea for the coalition to continue with Labour's plans - passed thanks to a misdirection of parliament - to hide tobacco displays.

Unusually, the comments thread (no log in required) has seen visits from the higher echelons of British anti-smoking glitterati. Every one of them, of course, is paid handsomely to dedicate their time entirely for the purpose. Yet - and please don't laugh too loud or you'll upset the neighbours - all opposition voices in the comments, despite quite obviously being ordinary folk, are somehow described by these rent seekers as the bent ones taking the shilling of a global industry.

Because Dockrell and West, to name but two, would naturally abhor the thought of taking money from pharmaceutical interests who profit from denormalising smokers and bullying them into using pharma products, so they would.

Do go read the whole thing (or even comment yourself if you're feeling saucy), and note the reticence of the healthists to depart from rehearsed rhetoric, emotive pleading, and plain old-fashioned "do you know who I am?"-ism.

Then ponder this very interesting aspect.

The legislation which they are trying to protect at all costs is The Health Act of last year. The lies work they contributed to get it passed were conducted through the Department of Health. ASH and CRUK (the latter of whom had a staff member seconded to the DH for the duration) had a hotline open at all hours to push the thing through. Their useful idiot was Lord Darzi, Labour's health GOAT member.

Yet this letter is directed at Vince Cable ... the BUSINESS secretary.

Are all these tobacco control slebs a trifle worried about the stance of their long-cultivated DH contacts, perchance?

Or perhaps they're just extending their blackmail to another department, I dunno.