Report to the People
14th November 2005
Bad
Arguments go up in Smoke
A bad argument, like a bad
suit, falls apart when pressed.
Take last week, when Dr
Andrew Buist and I appeared before the Parliament’s Cross Party Group on
Tobacco Control.
We had been invited to give
evidence in support of my bid to raise the age at which you can buy cigarettes
from 16 to 18. As you may recall,
back in June I managed to amend the Smoking, Health and Social Care Bill to give
Ministers the power to raise the smoking age.
Whether they will use these
powers, however, is still up for debate.
The case in favour, in my
view, is strong. We know that the
younger you start smoking, the harder it is to stop and raising the age will
make it more difficult for younger teenagers, who might pass for 16, but not 18,
to buy cigarettes.
The case against, however,
began to crumble as soon as it was tested.
Sceptics were worried about
infringing the “right” of 16-year-olds to smoke.
Another odd argument is that preventing children from smoking makes it
glamorous and encourages them to start. By
that logic, then, why don’t we ban under 18s from eating vegetables and
studying maths?
Thankfully, the Cross Party
Group wasn’t taken in and broadly supported our plan.
There is now a growing consensus, across the political divide and among
medical professionals, that we need to take this simple step and stop our kids
making the worst mistake of their lives.
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