13 Years On ...

Back in 2000, the Economist reported on a new initiative from the World Health Organisation. We now know it as the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).

It decided that health was the only concern any citizen (or politician) should care about; that objections should be ignored entirely if from industry; and discarded as merely inconvenient noise if from the public. The debate, they declared, was over.

But critics of the convention charge that the WHO is not concerned with such debate. Rather, it is latching on to tobacco to foist a western agenda on to developing countries, and to advance a campaign of political self-aggrandisement. It is, they point out, spending its scarce resources on tobacco, which kills in later life people who have chosen to smoke, rather than concentrating on the infectious diseases that kill innocents in the developing world in their youth. They warn of “mission creep”, and say that once the WHO has corralled member states into regulating tobacco, then alcohol and fatty foods will be next. 

The WHO denies these charges but has itself noted: “The success or failure of this approach provides a test case for the more active involvement of the public-health community in international law-making.” Would more active involvement of that kind be such a good thing?

Just over a decade later, Chris Snowdon has written at Spiked about how this approach has now morphed into 'the disease of public health'. And yes, mission creep - as predicted - is now a reality.

An abridged list of policies that have been proposed in the name of ‘public health’ in recent months includes: minimum pricing for alcohol, plain packaging for tobacco, a 20 per cent tax on fizzy drinks, a fat tax, a sugar tax, a fine for not being a member of a gym, graphic warnings on bottles of alcohol, a tax on some foods, subsidies on other foods, a ban on the sale of hot food to children before 5pm, a ban on anyone born after the year 2000 ever buying tobacco, a ban on multi-bag packs of crisps, a ban on packed lunches, a complete ban on alcohol advertising, a ban on electronic cigarettes, a ban on menthol cigarettes, a ban on large servings of fizzy drinks, a ban on parents taking their kids to school by car, and a ban on advertising any product whatsoever to children.

I highly recommend you sit down with a beverage of your choice and read the whole thing.

This is the result of allowing health nutters - backed by big industry funders and state sponsorship from idiot politicians - to ignore debate and fill their pockets at the expense of your taxes and liberties.

No-one is immune, you're all smokers now.