(Foreword by CG)
Chris Snowdon, author of Velvet Glove Iron Fist, has very kindly offered Freedom to Choose this exclusive.
We are especially pleased to share Chris's opening paragraphs with you, and we urge you to put a pot of tea or coffee on, and read the rest. The link below takes you to places ASH had hoped you would never see. In this essay, Chris demolishes those outrageous statements made by ASH on their website. The ASH tripe was titled "Myths and Reality, and Chris, with his remarkable research, deconstructs every mis-statement ASH make. Chris supports his essay with dozens of links.
This essay should be a salutory warning to MP's. Never EVER listen to those cultists again. They lie. They misinform. They mislead.
The trouble is, people like Chris watch, wait, research, and report. Then, in a clinical fashion, Chris deconstructs, debunks, and demystifies the tall tales that ASH have told, and brings us the plain, unvarnished truth. A concept plainly unheard of in the Bootcamp of the Cultists.
Many, many thanks Chris. And for all of our sakes, please do not stray too far from your keyboard. The British public need this information like a drowning man needs air.
Over to you Chris.
In July 2007, a smoking ban was introduced in all public places, bars, restaurants, railway platforms and workplaces in England. Three months later, the British anti-smoking pressure group Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) issued a fact sheet titled 'As the Smoke Clears: Myths and Reality of Smokefree England' (1). Before the ban, ASH consistently dismissed evidence from Ireland and the US that smoke-free legislation damaged business and, in particular, the pub and bingo industries.
When the ASH fact sheet was released in October 2007, the smoking ban had barely been in force for 100 days and it was too soon to judge conclusively whether or not any of this had happened in England. Pub chains and bingo operators had not yet announced their end-of-year accounts and the winter months had not arrived. There was, however, mounting anecdotal evidence of pubs and bingo halls suffering immediate hardship and 'Myths and Reality' was one weapon in the public relations battle over the ban. As we shall see, 'Myths and Reality' used selective data to paint a rosy picture of life after the smoking ban and led the reader to believe that reports of economic damage were propagated by vested interests within what they called "pro smoking organisations" and the "hospitality organisations".
This document listed ten 'myths' about the smoking ban and then gave what ASH called the 'reality' to debunk and discredit them. As this article will show, three of the claims they refuted were never actually made by opponents of the ban, five are demonstrably fallacious, one is contentious and one is now openly espoused by ASH themselves.
All the quotes in italics are direct quotes from the ASH fact sheet with the 'myth' followed by the 'reality'. Six months on, we are better able to distinguish fact from fantasy. Let us begin with the claims that the ban's opponents never actually made.
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