Warning: Banning smoking can endanger your political health

Alarm bells are ringing among Tories in parliament over the government's Tobacco and Vapes Bill. (Image: Peter Summers, Getty)

Bloomberg

Sun, 28 Apr 2024

By Martin Ivens In arguments about the merits of restricting smoking, libertarians lose hands down. The “nanny state” has the weight of science, common sense, and, nowadays, public opinion behind it. Compulsory seatbelts in cars and helmets for motorcyclists were also opposed by a noisy libertarian minority, but who now argues that the clock should be turned back?The facts are against Big Tobacco. In the UK, an estimated 76,000 deaths a year are caused by smoking. As early as 1950, an Oxford epidemiologist, Richard Do...

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