Northern Ireland Rejoices At Being 'Helped'

Former Tory health minister Andrew Lansley dropped a penny in a well in 2012 and made a wish.

"We don't want to work in partnership with the tobacco companies because we are trying to arrive at a point where they have no business in this country"

Rejoice! Because thanks to his unstinting support, ASH, and their fellow tobacco control prohibitionists have made his wish come true and 'helped' 900 Northern Irish citizens to kick their filthy habit of being employed.

Britain's last tobacco factory is set to shut its doors permanently with the loss of around 900 jobs. 

The Ballymena plant in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, is a major employer in the area. 

Ian Paisley Jr, MP for North Antrim said: "I am not in the habit of scaremongering or crying wolf. For the past five years since I became Member of Parliament for North Antrim I have warned about the serious unintended consequences for jobs in North Antrim if government both locally nationally and in Europe continues to over regulate the already heavily  regulated tobacco industry. 

"Indeed,  in July 2012 I warned that 1000 jobs were under threat. Unfortunately those warnings fell on deaf ears. This was despite me arranging over twenty on site visits of politicians from all parties and the government to see the impact more regulations would have on jobs."

I'm sure that Andrew Lansley and ASH will be punching the air in delight at this news, but I reckon Ballymena residents will have a different view.

You see, ASH regularly cry crocodile tears about the plight of the poor and try to piggy-back their bullying tactics as part of the general 'progressive' movement. But here we are with 900 British people about to be rendered unemployed - thanks partly to ASH - when the true cause of health inequalities is poverty and, yes, unemployment. ASH should know this because it's inequality 101 and what their beloved BBC teaches secondary school kids, for crying out loud.

There are significant differences in life expectancy of at least 10 years between different groups in society. Those living in poverty generally have poorer life chances and poorer health because of lower living standards, including poor housing and poor diet. 

Those in lower paid, unskilled jobs have a greater risk of accidents at work and can suffer from stress linked to unemployment.

In fact, BBC Bitesize goes further in its section on collectivism (i.e. that the state is Mother, the state is Father).

Even when an individual seems to be responsible for their situation, for example by smoking, drinking too much or eating a poor diet, collectivists argue that this is caused by poor life chances.

And there can be no poorer life chances than being in a household deprived of work by stratospherically-paid, trouser-stuffing, tax-sponging ideologists who actively work to put employees of a legal industry on the dole.

I think we've also seen another anti-smoking lie nailed today. Back in 2010, one of ASH's mates - Henry Featherstone - produced a pile of steaming garbage where he came to the stunningly dismissive conclusion that high taxes and regulation of tobacco would impose a cost of precisely £nil.

Yes, really.

When considering smoking economics, the role of the manufacture and sales of tobacco within the economy is often cited.

The 'economist' (Henry Featherstone, who {cough} left Policy Exchange pretty sharpish after he'd produced his policy-led dog's breakfast) then proceeded to talk about everything else but the threat of job losses in order to ignore their resultant financial cost.

For these reasons we exclude the role of business from our calculation. 

How convenient.

Unite the union is now mourning the loss of an annual £60 million to the Ballymena wage economy once the JTI factory closes, which I'd say adequately passes the tobacco control industry's scream test, wouldn't you?

Henry with Debs at the ASH AGM

Maybe sometime soon, Lansley, ASH, and their pal Henry should plan a visit to Northern Ireland to explain how removing the tobacco industry from Britain is a brilliant thing; that their policies are quite wonderful; and that their intervention has had no financial impact whatsoever.

I'm sure the locals will really appreciate talking to them about it.