Support for Smoking Ban is Paper-Thin
22 March 2024
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Christopher Snowdon writes for Conservative Home
IEA Head of Lifestyle Economics Christopher Snowdon has written for ConservativeHome responding to Steve Brine MP’s claim that the proposed generational tobacco ban has the support of the ‘vast majority’ of Conservative Party voters.
Christopher wrote:
“The question the pollsters asked was: ‘How strongly, if at all, do you support or oppose a goal to make Britain a country where no one smokes?’
“There is no mention of Rishi Sunak’s generational tobacco ban in that question. There is no mention of any policy at all, let alone prohibition. YouGov might as well have asked ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if no one smoked?’…
“No reasonable person could interpret it, as Brine does, as showing ‘overwhelming support’ for ‘the Government’s smoking ban plan’.
“Could it be that the public have started to think through this policy through and are having second thoughts? When the smokers’ rights group FOREST commissioned a similar survey in January, their pollster asked a more accurate and specific question: “Do you think that when a person is legally an adult at 18 they should or should not be allowed to purchase cigarettes and other tobacco products?”
“In response, 64 per cent agreed and only 26 per cent disagreed.”
Read Christopher’s full piece here.
Christopher wrote:
“The question the pollsters asked was: ‘How strongly, if at all, do you support or oppose a goal to make Britain a country where no one smokes?’
“There is no mention of Rishi Sunak’s generational tobacco ban in that question. There is no mention of any policy at all, let alone prohibition. YouGov might as well have asked ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if no one smoked?’…
“No reasonable person could interpret it, as Brine does, as showing ‘overwhelming support’ for ‘the Government’s smoking ban plan’.
“Could it be that the public have started to think through this policy through and are having second thoughts? When the smokers’ rights group FOREST commissioned a similar survey in January, their pollster asked a more accurate and specific question: “Do you think that when a person is legally an adult at 18 they should or should not be allowed to purchase cigarettes and other tobacco products?”
“In response, 64 per cent agreed and only 26 per cent disagreed.”
Read Christopher’s full piece here.
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