As I'm currently without work, and following my recent holiday to Italy, I must admit that funds are tight. However, thanks to Anne Milton - the corrupt DoH minister who lives happily in the pocket of the anti-smoker industry - I now have a two page worthless letter from her filled with all manner of weird, wild, wacky and frankly paranoid health lies about smoking which will save me a bob or two on bog paper.
My MP Karl McCartney - who I am sure is a good and decent bloke - was invited to The Save Our Pubs and Clubs event at the HoC on June 29. He couldn't make it but kindly agreed to see me at his local surgery where I told him about some of the ridiculous health claims made about smoking, the fraud of passive smoking, and how smokers are being bullied, harassed out of jobs and in some cases sacked just for being smokers.
I also made him aware of a study that shows lifelong smokers from childhood to older age are 60% more likely to die immediately after quitting than if they continue to smoke moderately.
I also raised with Karl my concerns that the Pharma political front group ASH was too close to Govt and it stank of corruption.
After all, it can't be right for a Govt to pay a political lobby group to lobby it to achieve the ideological aim that the Govt wants and bypassing the very real concerns of the electorate - ie: The people who put Milton and her cronies in office.
Karl was very interested in our campaign and wrote to ex-smoker Milton who at least took the time to write him a three sided letter rather than the usual brief "smokers kill 600,000 people per year so fuck off" response her dept usually sends to humble voters concerned at where this is all going.
Milton feigned ignorance of smokers sacked from jobs and bullied in the workplace yet I drew her attention to Page 229 of Velvet Glove, Iron Fist that details names, firms, and cases where that has happened since this nonsense began in the late 1990s.
She is either blind, ignorant or stupid if she hasn't seen articles such as THIS THIS or THIS.
And even after the spiteful blanket ban which forbids smokers from smoking in the workplace, the practice still continues and there is no protection or even recognition to stop this discrimination based on bigotry and not health concerns or a smoker's inability to do the job required.
In 2005, a lady named Sophie Blinham began work at Dataflow Communications but was sacked within 15 minutes of starting her job. She took the firm to court and lost. A spokesman for the "victorious" firm said he didn't want people coming into work "smelling of smoke." Smokers did not, he said, present a "good image." I loathe the smell of chewing gum but I'd never sack someone for it if they didn't chew it at work. Smell - despite the fraudulent studies on Third Hand Smoke - harms no one.
Milton also mentions the Govt's plan to force us down to an 18.5% per cent minority as outlined in the puke inducing title of it's report - no doubt complied by academics in the payroll of Big P and ASH - Healthy Lives, Healthy People: A Tobacco Control Plan for England. Despite the fact she said this, rather more substantial piece of bog paper, "aims to promote comprehensive and evidence based tobacco control in local communities" there is nothing in it based on any more than junk science, manipulated data and a prejudicial view that smokers will be eradicated no matter what.
Then of course Milton repeats - and actually makes up a few new whoppers - on how many die of smoking (fill in huge figure yourself - it's just as accurate). Do you know they now claim it kills more people than road accidents, "other accidents and falls", preventable diabetes, suicide and alcohol abuse? Wow.
I might even be tempted to believe it if this wasn't about health but social engineering by profiteering sociologist academics rather than scientists who work in the more reliable area of biology than behavior.
I forgot during my visit to Karl to ask exactly what the plan for smokers is after we are forced down an even smaller minority but I feel sure that Milton won't admit quite yet that the aim is to criminalise us. My real fear is "quit or prison is the next logical step". I am to write to Karl again to ask him find out what plans lie in store for us and whether I will be jailed in my 70s for failing to subscribe to this new religion
Of course Milton spouts the fraudulent figures on harm caused by passive smoking. Odd that they appear to get worse with each new study or report or research that we are never allowed to see or analyse despite the rapid drop in smoking rates. Also odd that she blames smokers for causing asthma when the fact is that since smoking rates have declined asthma cases have risen.
The studies on passive smoking are all featured in Velvet Glove Iron Fist and they show roughly rounded off that 80% show a null (no) effect, 10% an irritant effect to people extra sensitive to smoke - non show lung cancer - and 10% that show there is a protective effect for children. Milton is quite simply a liar - or naive to the point of stupidity. I would have thought that Britain deserves someone of more intellect to direct policy but then she is an expert bigot and I guess that is the only qualification needed for the modern health dept today. Despite the billions that we put into their funding, they still can't cure cancer and heart disease so they waste our cash on persecuting minorities instead to make it look as if they are "doing something".
Milton even repeats the rubbish about middle ear infections which yesterday's science by press release fraudulently claimed made teenagers deaf. More disgracefully, despite the group that represents and counsels parents on cot deaths refuting and demanding ASH founder John Banzhaf withdraw this false claim, he continued to repeat it until it became "truth".
The Sudden Death Syndrome Alliance said : "The sensational headline for one of your recent Internet reports (07/30) "Smoking Parents are killing their infants" has gone too far. The fact is, resarchers still do not know what causes SIDS ... Insensitive generalisations about SIDS broadcast through print or the electronic media serve only to perpetuate the public's misconceptions ... Your literature states that smoking "kills more than 2000 infants each year from SIDS" Any published figures are sheer speculation, or guesses, not grounded in actual experimentation ... we respectfully request that you adjust your message as far as SIDS is concenred. While we support your cause, we can not do so at the expense of the tens of thousands of families that we represent."
The group said they welcomed Banzhaf's reply but he did not give one and ASH continued to quote the statistic which Milton has now adjusted by just throwing smoking in the mix as the cause of "a variety of conditions including respiratory disease, COT DEATH, (my emphasis) and middle ear disease in children." Yes, we know, they always use the children as human shields to force through their own wet dream of a smoke free world based on ideology not real and proven health concerns.
The only little nugget of comfort was that Milton claimed that "no decision has yet been taken on whether to award further grants to ASH for 2011/12 or beyond." I reckon that as the Govt also aims to use the fraudulent smoker-harms-others template for other lifestyle issues, then ASH will have a new role to play under it's new description of "Public Health Charity". Yes, I think the former "Anti-smoking charity" is looking to ensure it still gets it's unhealthy share of a very large paranoid pie by using its bigoted expertise on other groups of people.
I hope Karl does write to Milton again based on what I have written above but I also know that she will just repeat and keep repeating her outrageous claims until he finally believes them or just gives up. Nanny Milton along with Bully Andrew Lansley, have made the poster below a reality. As much as I really do like Karl, I have to ask as a smoker - and of others as drinkers, fatties and foodies - do you really want to vote Tory next time when all you can expect is more persecution and an unwillingness for Govt depts to actually listen to those it allegedly works for and represents?
The Conservative Govt must be made to see that it's current health policy will lose it votes and damage it's chances of a landslide victory at another election. They managed to scrape together a coalition on 10 million votes - just imagine what they could achieve if they got the 12 million smokers onside as well.