Anti-tobacco's web of lies
Wednesday, December 9, 2009 In contrast to the anti-smoking bile in yesterday's Evening Standard (see previous post), columnist Andrew Alexander has this to say in today's Daily Mail:
A lie, by definition, is something you say which you know is untrue ... Smoking is an interesting area because the figures - intended to make your flesh creep - must be, by definition, false.
We are told that smoking 'costs' the National Health Service £1.7bn, or maybe £5bn. They are not just guesswork, they are patently contrary to common sense ... if smoking leads to premature deaths, it obviously saves the NHS money, since it is in old age that the cost of medical attention soars.
An outright lie is also included in the anti-smoking campaign. Tobacco manufacturers have to warn purchasers that, among other things, 'smoking kills' ... A more honest statement would be that tobacco can kill. Only the illiterate or mentally idle will fail to see the difference.
Alas, there is something about smoking which damages the mind - of anti-smokers. Normal as they may be in other respects, they rave and rant about tobacco ...
Full article HERE.
Reader Comments (9)
To read an article of such common sense was a breath of fresh air, sanity at last.
And he is definately on the money.
Better than most of the, "preachers of hate" we hear from all the time.
A brilliant article, it would be so pleasant to see a whole lot more of like minded common sense being published instead of the usual corrupt propoganda.
It's good to see most readers comments are ether pro smoking or pro choice.
Dear Old AA -
A Good Deed in a Naughty World.
But when may we expect the first EDITORIAL in a similar vein...................?
And I'm STILL waiting for the Celebs.........
I have just read the article that SC refers to. You can comment. I have read through the comments (60) looking for names that I recognise from this site. There were none.
It really is important that we should add our voices to all the others who are commenting. We must not confine ourselves only to these pages.
This particular article (Daily Mail online) has a facility to grade comments. The vast majority of commentators are down-grading massively any comments which are pro-ban and massively up-grading anti-ban comments.
It is worth visiting. Click on HERE in SC's post.
Its so refreshing to read a plain speaking and truthful article like Andew Alexander's.
If people like him didnt take the bother to write such articles about the deceitful and lying statictics thats being paraded all over the media on a nearly daily basis in relation to smoking, it would give the antis free reign to do god knows what, like increasing the price of fags out of all proportion and maybe even ban buying cigs abroad or even worse, jailing all the filthy smokers.
Did you notice that when there's a lull in outlandish smoking lies, the media turn to obesity or drink, just to keep their hand in.
Like the latest article in the Daily Mail about how statistics show that heart desease has increased by one third in people who are overweight.
While not forgetting to mention of course, that smoking and drinking are a contributing factor too.
So in the swings and roundabouts of the media health circus filler up word space of big pharma cash for word space contracts, it could be the turn for a blitz on the dangers of drink next week.
Followed a week later on how statistics show that Smoking.....causes your extremities to fall off.....etc etc etc
More pro smoking articles please before we all end up in the Gulag!
Junican, I left a comment on 9 December and have today left another one, as well as rating most of the comments left so far.
I do however agree that more people from here should take advantage of these links to express their thoughts and opinions more widely.
I usually have trouble accessing the comment section of these newspaper sites and more often give up.
Pity the dont copy the Forest site.
Trouble is we've all got lives to live. I've spent the greater part of today angry that our local give-away weekly has churned out as front page lead a load of flam about an ancient pub's reinvention of itself under a new name with barely a nod at the fact that its previous name of the last 180 years has been dropped and in a conservation area at that. The festivities at the opening were blessed by the presence of the local great and good as were those at the launch of another refurbished pub a few weeks earlier. The local on-line news service printed letters from me pointing to the total smoking ban as having been the death blow for pubs throughout the land. No-one tried to contradict me. It was as if my letter did not exist. I doubt whether I shall try to write to the local freesheet. In the latter case what I suspect was a very well constructed press release was swallowed whole with never a hint of a challenge. There was once a designated, full-time, local reporter but not for a couple of years now. These re-invented pubs where locals once were, are, I suspect, but plastic phoenixes.