How Tobacco Control Will End

I often muse about history. One of my GCE subjects was Roman History. Being only 16 years old, the curriculum in in that subject was limited in the period expected to be studies. It primarily spanned the period from the the foundation of the City of Rome until the beginning of the Emperor period. In other words, it concentrated on the rise of Rome and not on its demise as an Empire. Of course, one of the main themes was the invasion of Britain, Hadrian’s wall and all that. Nothing in the course concerned the invasion of Italy and the sacking of Rome by the Goths, or the way that people lived, or their homes, or what they ate. It was mostly about dates and battles and who were the consuls, and how their system of government worked.

The Roman Empire spread widely around the Mediterranean and into countries immediately adjacent to Italy. But, as it spread, the armies which sustained it consisted less and less of native Romans. Most Roman soldiers in the provinces were conscripts. Further, the bigger that the Empire became, the more bureaucracy was involved. It became top heavy and corrupt. The shrinking of the Roman Empire became inevitable.

Much the same happened to the British Empire, and all the other Empires which have arisen throughout history. They expand beyond their ‘native’ ability to control events, but have a swollen bureaucracy which depends upon stability.

In modern times, everything happens much more quickly. The Tobacco Control Empire is already beginning to fall apart. For example, what is the purpose of the bureaucratic ‘department’ which is concerned with ‘tobacco smoke research’? I forget its ‘fancy’ name. Surely, there is no point in paying for such research?

Some What is there to gain? If smoking causes lung cancer, heart attacks and all sorts of other conditions, what does it matter if it also has a minuscule contribution to liver problems? Who cares if 10 more smokers die from liver cancer than non-smokers when such deaths are a minute proportion of deaths? Why does it matter, and what is the point of conducting such research? Or rather, what is the point of repeating the same thing over and over again to detect minute differences?

Some Tobacco Control States within the Empire are trying to survive, and keep their lucrative occupational salaries by changing their names. Thus, tobacco control can become sugar control, or alcohol control or obesity control. The more that they spread, the more ineffective and costly they become. You cannot stop a person from becoming fat if that person eats far too many chips, regardless of how much you tax sugar.

And that is my problem with Cameron et al. They live in a bubble where the British Empire still exists and where vast profits pour into the UK. Maybe they do, but they do not pour into the pockets of citizens.

What is most important is that prohibition by law has never worked. What we have been seeing in tobacco control has been prohibition by rhetoric. Rhetoric works by playing upon the emotions, especially fear. The trick is to transfer emotions to you. For example, when you see a comment somewhere which says that the person came out of a pub stinking of tobacco smoke and in need of a shower, that person KNOWS that his intention is to make smokers feel guilty. Such comments are DELIBERATELY intended to create guilty feelings. They never mention that they could have avoided the smoke by not going into that place. Why did those people go, again and again, into a place which upset them?

We need a new political environment where politicians are really responsible for what they do. It is not good enough that they should be able to resign and walk away.

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For some reason, TobCon has had it easy for years in the West. It cannot last because its costs are always transferred to the taxpayer, four fifths of whom do not enjoy tobacco. Non-smoking taxpayers do not know how much tax they pay to support TobCon. Tobacco taxes go into a general pot. They are not specifically allocated to this or that.

Our political system stinks of dogma, incomprehension and dictats. Cameron should have said “No” to PP and “No” to Sugar taxes. How can the UK trust such a coward? Why is he afraid of the Medicals?

What is important from a smoker point of view is that Smoking is no longer a Headline grabber. ASH ET AL are publicists and nothing else. When their press releases fail the MSM test, they will fade away.