TICAP, The Hague, March 15th 2010

Monday, December 20, 2010

Beliefs, manipulation and lies in the tobacco issue

Robert Molimard

When contaminated by pesticides such as Gaucho ® or Regent ®, a bee becomes disoriented and can no longer find its hive or its wild flowers of choice. We cannot solve a problem if the messages are muddled. Undeniably, disturbing one’s sense of orientation and muddling communication hinders rational thought and behavior. Lies and manipulations are the weapons of choice for political and economic gains without regard for the well-being of people or the survival of the planet.


http://cagecanada.blogspot.com/2010/12/beliefs-manipulation-and-lies-in.html

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Cor! Shall we have a quick fag before the government stops us doing this on the Internet?

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Monday, December 13, 2010

Happy Christmas to all our readers

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Saturday, December 04, 2010

Bertrand Russell on smoking

Bertrand Russell On Smoking
I still say smoking is a bad idea but it did not seem to hurt this old guy. He says that smoking even saved him...

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Saturday, November 27, 2010

Libertarian Paternalism

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Sunday, November 21, 2010

The Flickering Ash

by Blad Tolstoy

Some of you may have come across ASH's flickr site before, but if not, well here it is:


One thing that particularly struck me was the meeting of the All-party parliamentary group on Smoking and Health at Palace of Westminster, undertaken in June 2010.

See: 

and note well here the heading under the photograph of Martin Dockrell:

"ASH - All-party parliamentary group on Smoking and Health - Palace of Westminster, 06 June 2010"

You know, I thought these all-party parliamentary groups were supposed to be neutral and bound to set aside their personal prejudices in favour of objective analysis.  But ASH seem to have colonised this one in no uncertain terms.  Well, what's new?  Parliamentary democracy is frequently a load of crap.

I am nevertheless struck by the picture of Stephen Williams, New Chair of the all-party parliamentary group on Smoking and Health. Strewth! Hi there chubby chops!







Why do so many of these people look so unfit?  They also swing between extremes.  You will all remember Liam Donaldson's bulimic lifestyle when, in a sweat of guilt he went from this:

to this:


(Yuck!  Still not a pretty sight!)

Now we have Stephen Williams also going the way of all flesh.  Er... So why doesn't he take a leaf from the book of old Skull 'ead, namely Professor john Britton?


Or perhaps Professor Robert West - he''s approaching the "skull 'ead" phenomenon too?


Nope, it doesn't look too good - from one extreme to the other, but maybe you'd prefer an equally unattractive variation, namely, the pockie, nobly skin look aka the Mole 'ead Dockrell touch also shared by Liam D.  See:



These people just don't look healthy - don't you think they'd be better off with a pack of Woodbines?


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Sunday, November 14, 2010

Taking The Bull By The Horns

Blad has worked hard on a this useful resource, which is a paper on Charitable Status.  It outlines clearly in very accessible language just what makes up a charity, how they may obtain funding and hints at what might be the best strategy to examine and question their activities.  I commend this work to all proponents of Smokers' Rights.  Despite the apparently dry subject matter, it really does make easy reading and sets the scene for a more effective battle!

Please see:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0Bxr6qiY8ZfzyZGU3MWE5M2QtYzU3Ni00Y2ViLWJkYjAtMmMwOWM3MGU2NmMx&hl=en

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EU Smoking Habits - Prevalences

The European Commissions Special Eurobarometer Report of May 2010 contains information on smoking prevalences from Oct 2009.  The UK's prevalence was 28% more than two years into the enaction of the smoking ban in The Health Act 2006.

See:

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Roy Rogers - Norton Buffalo "Down in Mississippi"



A little musical light relief.

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Sunday, October 24, 2010

Philipina Schergevitch

If this isn't a crime, I don't know what is!  This Vancouver Sun article relates how an old lady is in threat of eviction because she smokes. Rich White, author of Smoke Screens: The Truth About Tobacco has written a letter to her housing association.  If you wish to b a signatory to this letter email him at richwhite (at) smokescreens.org.  I think we should let the Bishop O'Byrne Housing for Seniors Association how we feel!

Article: http://www.vancouversun.com/health/year+woman+told+butt+evicted/3696774/story.html

Letter extract:

Dear Ms Morgan,
We the undersigned appeal to your conscience and common sense to reconsider the eviction of Philipina Schergevitch for her smoking habit.
Philipina is a long-standing tenant of a decade, during which time the Francis Klein Centre has become her home and she has provided the Bishop O'Byrne Housing for Seniors Association a lot of money to live there. At 88 years of age, the stress alone could cause the demise of this lady who has done nothing wrong to deserve such treatment. While the association states smoking is permitted in designated areas outside, it must be recognised that subjugating an elderly woman to the harsh weather conditions Calgary experiences is unacceptable and her human rights must be considered. The argument for the ban is of health, but that is clearly not the case because no harm is posed to other tenants by her smoking and a direct, large and immediate health threat is posed to Philipina through the extreme weather conditions of winter. It is startling to note that the Bishop O’Byrne Housing for Seniors Association deems it acceptable to put tenants at risk of pneumonia, flu, unprecedented stress and the possibility of attack from passers-by under the pretence of “health” and care for other, non-smoking tenants. The Calgary Herald reported in January 2009 the case of Juliette Bombardier, who died outside the Kamloops, B. C. seniors care home the day after Christmas as she went out for a cigarette and got locked out. This was a preventable death and yet the Bishop O’Bryne Housing for Seniors Association is fully prepared to run the risk of its tenants suffering a similar fate.

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Saturday, October 23, 2010

Another Anti Smoker Bites the Dust

By Blad Tolstoy.

Another rabid anti smoker bites the dust aged 53.  Yes, you all know it, health maniacs are supposed to live longer.  As has been demonstrated many times, it's a lie, they don't live any longer than anybody else taken in the round assessment of the population.

Here we have Senator Jenny Oropeza kicking the bucket at 53. This one was big on smoker persecution as you may read in the article at the accompanying link:


Am I sorry she's gone? No, I should be, but I now detest these people so much that I say to the devil:

Drive her fast to her tomb!

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Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Manipulating Doctors

This surmises that all doctors are stupid!

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Whatever next?

NEW YORK (CBS 2) – From the inside-out, there may be a new “no-go” when it comes to smoking.
Mayor Bloomberg’s anti-smoking crusade could be coming to a city park or public beach near you, a plan plenty of people say crosses the line, reports CBS 2′s Dave Carlin.

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An interesting video. I don't doubt that drug companies are in the business of making money.  I think however that Gwen Olsen is not being completely fair, notwithstanding that she is also trying to sell her product, a book! Her example of antidepressants is particularly unfair, as it does not take into account the very significant benefits of these drugs.  She also exaggerates the withdrawal effects.  So, in summary, she is as biased as the drug companies.


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Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Previous post deleted due to popular outrage


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Tuesday, August 24, 2010

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Sunday, July 18, 2010

Personal Message To Nick Clegg

There are several suggestions put forward asking you to consider amending the smoking ban. They have provoked many comments and much interest. Despite this I hear you are in danger of ignoring widespread public opinion on this matter. You will be seen to prefer listening to vested interests and bigoted self interest groups. In doing so the Your Freedom initiative will be exposed to ridicule and as a thinly disguised sham, created to convince you that you have some sort of influence as a minority segment of a Conservative government. Conversely if you listen to the outcry you will see that the courageous action, the common sense stand and one that carries massive public support is to control the influence of unrepresentative and unscientific self interest groups. The amendment of the smoking ban to allow smoking in ventilated, segregated areas in hospitality venues where the owner chooses is an idea for Our Freedom that does not merely encompass but engulfs the three aims stated within your initiative.


Amending the smoking ban will:

  • Restore A Civil Liberty
     
  • Repeal An Unnecessary Law
     
  • Cut Business and Third Sector Regulations
enough said!

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UK Government: Incompetent or Corrupt?

My wife and I are now socially isolated as a result of the smoking ban. We are only allowed to smoke in our home, which fortunately we own, as otherwise it might not be so clear cut. Oddly, business owners are not allowed to permit smoking in their property. How can that be right in a democratic modern society? We voted Tory in the hope that free market ideals would return, that the erosion of civil liberties would be reversed and that common sense and rational use of science would prevail.

Terrorists have more protection under the human rights act than smokers.

We have done nothing wrong.

It is claimed that smoking causes harm in non-smokers. As a result of expensive government funded media campaigns, the public has been fooled or scared into believing that this is so. It is far from the truth that environmental tobacco smoke causes "passive smoking" in non-smokers and resultant ill health. On the contrary, scientific methods have been unable to demonstrate any consistent figures supporting this claim. An equal number of studies demonstrate statistically insignificant harm and statistically insignificant benefits from ETS (evidence freely available and gladly supplied). The key studies used to support the claim have been shown to be lacking in scientific rigour (evidence freely available and gladly supplied). Somehow and for some reason the balance of these studies has been presented to the public in a biased way. One can only guess at the motives for this inaccuracy. This is dealt with at length by other commentators. Time and time again it is recorded that the self proclaimed motives of ASH and the WHO, are to reduce smoking rates, which their actions have failed to do. They self admitted methods used for this reduction are to engender a fear of smokers and to socially isolate smokers. This could otherwise be described as deception, scaremongering and at worst social engineering or brainwashing.

A strange anomaly exists in government and public health policy. Mental health is rightly being given increased priority and smoking is prevalent in higher numbers of those with mental health problems opposed to those without such issues. Social isolation is a known cause of increased mortality as is mental illness and lower social class, so how can it be a sensible goal to isolate smokers, those with mental illness and the socially less fortunate. Would it not be more appropriate to target mental illness and social deprivation. Smoking has become an easy target and real issues are being ignored.

Smokers have long known of the risk they take and could not be in a better position to make an informed choice. Sadly that is the only choice we have left, having been deprived of the choice to meet up with non-smoking friends for uninterrupted discourse.

Smokers are exposed to the risk of leaving venues to smoke outside. This comes with particular risk to women, who are exposed to rowdy torment on the street and spiking of their drinks left in the establishment.

The very sad thing is that there is no justification for these measures and that the concerns of those who dislike the smell of smoke and may erroneously believe the smoker is doing them harm, can easily be alleviated by adequate ventilation and segregation and the choice to avoid businesses where smoking is permitted. I am not given the choice to smoke where I cause no offence, instead I am forced to cause offence in doorways. I am not given the choice to go to a venue where smoking is permitted and I can minimise my exposure to anti-smokers. Instead this legislation brings me and anti-smokers into conflict. Surely a policy of live and let live would be a preferable alternative.

No other area of legal human behaviour has been targeted like this before and the sordid history of prohibition is well known to all. This legislation causes social unrest, social isolation and persecution of a significant (20-25%) minority of the population. It is dishonest, scientifically unjustified and probably rooted in petty corruption.

It is no secret that the SCOTH committee who advised the government prior to this legislation was predominantly comprised of members with pharmaceutical company interests. It is no secret that pharmacological interventions for smoking cessation are big money spinners. It is no secret that the mainstay of pharmaco-therapeutic manipulation of smokers' physiology is nicotine replacement and it is no secret despite widespread publicity to the contrary, that NRT is abysmally hopeless at stopping people smoking and extremely expensive. Why therefore is the NHS spending our money on it. Surely, NICE should have concluded by now that it is not financially viable. Why hasn't it? Your guess is as good as mine.

Nicotine addiction is widely used to explain smokers' behaviour and a useful tool to depict smokers as weak "crack whores", even imply a form of criminality, certainly label us as undesirables. The poor efficacy of NRT belies this belief and reinforces the idea that smoking is a smoker's choice not the consequence of a smoker's weakness against the nicotine receptor.

All these points further prove that government policy is informed not by science and noble intentions to improve our health but by the sinister and corrupt agenda of interested parties and the bigoted opinions of self interest groups.

In short the government is either incompetent or corrupt. Point made!

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Friday, July 16, 2010

Amend the smoking ban you hypocrite!

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Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Patrick Basham - An Invitation to the House of Commons




The Democracy Institute invites you to a House of
Commons presentation on shocking new evidence
about tobacco display bans’ harmful effects

SPEAKER – DR PATRICK BASHAM

COAUTHOR, HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT:
WHY TOBACCO DISPLAY BANS FAIL


ROOM SPONSOR – PHILIP DAVIES MP

1.00PM – 2.00PM
TUESDAY 15 JUNE 2010
COMMITTEE ROOM 15
HOUSE OF COMMONS
LONDON SW1A 0AA

DR BASHAM’S TALK TO BE FOLLOWED BY COMMENTS FROM AN EXPERT PANEL

PLEASE ALLOW PLENTY OF TIME TO PROCEED THROUGH SECURITY
BEFORE MAKING YOUR WAY TO THE COMMITTEE ROOM


RSVP


PHONE 0845 310 4144 EMAIL pbasham@democracyinstitute.org

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Friday, April 09, 2010

Dr Phil Button - the "lost" interview

Dr Phil Button - the "lost" interview

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Saturday, February 06, 2010

Smokerphobia

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Read all about it! Cigarette sales up in France and the UK!

So the government says smoking rates are down in the UK. Liars! Read this and find out the truth!

See:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/markets/questor/7148625/Imperial-Tobaccos-yield-makes-the-shares-a-buy-Questor-share-tips.html

Add this news about the cost to the UK from cigarette smuggling and the governments' "smokers are down to 21%" is total bullshit!

See:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/6110778/Revealed-2bn-cost-to-UK-from-cigarette-smuggling.html

Have fun!
Uncle Blad.

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Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Registering for the TICAP Conference

Hello Everybody. This is to remind those who wish to attend the next TICAP Conference at The Hague on March 15h, 2010, to make their registrations here please.:

http://antiprohibition.org/register/

This will be an important event and presents another real opportunity to kick Aunty up the backside. So please make the effort to be there. Remember attendance is free.

We thank you.

Phil and Blad.

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Tuesday, January 05, 2010

New York teaches smokers how to inject heroin

by Blad Tolstoy

In case you thought the story that 49 percent of last year's lung donors in the UK being smokers took the top prize for describing establishment hypocrisy, then think again, for here is another story to rival the former. This time, it's about New York.

Yes, New York, the city of Mayor Bloomberg, the man responsible for introducing its smoking ban, has hit the headlines with its Department of Health spending $32,000 on 70,000 fliers that tell you how to shoot heroin,complete with detailed tips on "prepping the dope" and injecting it into your arm.

Well, why should this be a surprise? Bloomberg is himself an advocate of marijuana and, moreover, it today's anti-smoking politically correct world lunacy rules. You can't smoke but you will receive detailed information
on injecting smack safely. “Warm your body (jump up and down) to show your veins,” and “Find the vein before you try to inject.” The Health Department handout then goes on: “If you don’t ‘register,’ pull out and try again.”

Anyway, read on and snigger...

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/heroin_for_dummies_oLIfe1Gxl7RMk9iJZiWlnL

and

http://www.anorak.co.uk/235162/strange-but-true/new-york-teaches-smokers-how-to-inject-heroin.html

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Sunday, January 03, 2010

49 percent of last year's lung donors in the UK were smokers

by Blad Tolstoy

Well, just kicking off the new year with a story that the mainstream British media didn't want you to read. Indeed, this story was left to CNN to break, and so, if you weren't watching CNN anywhere, you'd have missed it. Nevertheless, as the details reveal, 49 percent of last year's lung donors in the UK were smokers.

See: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/12/28/shortage.organ.transplant/index.html


Yes, the story came to light because one of the recipients of a smoker's lung transplant - Corporal Matthew Millington, 31 - died less than a year after receiving a double lung transplant from a donor who may have smoked more than 50 cigarettes a day.

This story raises many issues, many of which can be read in the above linked article. However, there are also a number of issues that aren't raised.

One of these is given that out of 49 percent of lung transplants undertaken, only one turned out to have an obvious negative result. Another issue is that despite the castigation of smokers and the
refusal by a number of hospitals to treat them even for non-smoking related diseases and problems, it remains sickening to discover just how great a percentage of smokers' lungs were "harvested" when it suited the convenience of the medical profession to do so.

There have been numerous stories from America over the years about the use of smokers' lungs for transplants, but now we have the proof for ourselves just how handy we all are when it comes to our body parts being used to save lives.

The last issue is that this story also illustrates how much exaggeration goes on with regard to the number of smokers who contract lung cancer. If the risk were anything like as great as is portrayed by the government, the medical authorities and the NGOs of tobacco control, then under no circumstances could one imagine any responsible surgeon taking the risk of transplanting smokers' lungs.

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