Well, well, well, junior state health persecutor Nanny Milton has openly admitted that the Govt's tobacco control policy is corrupt and designed by political lobbyists and Big Pharmaceutical vested interests.
In an answer to a Parliamentary question, Milton said the Govt didn't give a stuff about those who had voted Tory nor did it care about law abiding ordinary people or legal business.
Instead, it pays political lobby groups like ASH - which it hides behind "charity" status so its dodgy dealings can't be found through Freedom of Information requests - and only listens to big Corporate interests which compete directly with Big Tobacco companies who are not allowed to be heard along with their legal consumers who are being punished for not wanting to quit.
This would be the same Pharmaceutical Industry that uses Govt to push harmful drugs which kill smokers but they continue to be prescribed because the Govt says smokers don't matter and they are trying to purge us from society so death or quit makes no difference.
It seems that Nanny Milton is openly acknowledging that the publically funded Department of Vested Interests, AKA the DoH, is lobbied by organisations funded by the DoH, and is only happy to speak to those that share it's corruption in making Big Pharma richer and poor smokers criminals because they won't buy Big P's quit products.
And I thought Tories were for free market competition and not about making laws that allow one competitor to prosper at the expense of a rival.
Fair play on the only honest politician in Govt at present for asking the question of Milton. Personally I'd like to know if she is also being paid by Big Pharma to give it an unfair competitive advantage like her predecessor Pat Hewitt - the Taxi For Hire Minister who was paid £3000 per day to advance the interests of corporate Big Pharma in the making of Govt policy.
I repeat what I said above. This corrupt Conservative Govt hides ASH's main function - political lobbying - behind charity status so we can never learn how much it is paying our so called elected representatives to make the policy it wants making.
Philip Davies asked the Secretary of State for Health :
If he will make it his policy to require that organisations which engage with his Department on tobacco control issues disclose whether they are linked to or receive funding from (a) the pharmaceutical industry and (b) the public purse. [54656]
Nanny Milton - presumably in the absence of Big Bully Boss Andrew Lansley replied:
The Government are under obligation to protect tobacco control from the vested interests of the tobacco industry, under The World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
Our policy on this is set out in Chapter 10 of “Healthy Lives, Healthy People: A Tobacco Control Plan for England ”. This does not extend beyond the tobacco industry and the Department, as with all other policy areas, engages with a wide range of stakeholders including the pharmaceutical industry, organisations in receipt of funding from the pharmaceutical industry and organisations in receipt of funding from the public purse.
The other question I'd really like to know is who the hell voted anyone in from the WHO into Westminster? I'm pretty sure there were no candidates from that organisation on my ballot paper last May.
So now the secret is out. Milton has admitted for all to hear that the current Govt is corrupt and it doesn't care about it's voters so smoking Tory voters - have your eyes been opened yet or will you still vote for more persecution from the thoroughly dishonest Conservative Govt that panders to Big Industry and lobbyists who are making the policy that you expected to be made by those you voted for?
If you vote Conservative again, you deserve all you get but ordinary hard working law abiding, tax paying smokers do not.