Friday 28 January 2011

Official: UK Smoking Bans Ruin Lives

Here's some research that you will never find anywhere on the BBC. Primarily because it goes against every piece of disinformation their chums in tobacco control have been flinging at them, but also because it hasn't been compiled by some loopy snake oil salesman from Yankland.

No, this emanates from British researchers (full pdf here), is bang up to date, and derives data from the British Household Panel Survey ... so will therefore be dutifully ignored by Nanny Beeb.

We use three waves of the British Household Panel Survey to examine whether changes in smoking behaviour are correlated with life satisfaction and whether the recent ban on smoking in public places in England, Wales and Northern Ireland has affected this relationship. We find that smokers who reduced their daily consumption of cigarettes after the ban report significantly lower levels of life satisfaction compared to those who did not change their smoking habits, with heavy smokers particularly affected. No such finding is reported for previous years.
So then Cameron, if you are true to your word in wishing to enact policy on the back of a measure of happiness, amending the smoking ban is a no brainer, yes?

Or were you just talking bollocks like your mate Nick?

H/T here via Crampton


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

No good asking Cameron , he's not a very good source of reliable information .

The witch from Essex said...

Could we not get the authors of this poll to find out the 'happiness' level of the people that have NOT decreased their cigarette consumption that are now totally socially isolated, demonised and hated.
My 'happiness' level has gone from 'very happy' 3 years ago to 'pissed off totally' now.
The poll was aimed at people that had reduced their smoking.
How about the people that still enjoy the same amount of tobacco that they enjoyed before the ban and see just how 'happy' they are now ?

Anonymous said...

My happiness is even better - I've not spent thousands in pubs and restaurants for more than 3 years, I've bought two new cars with what I've saved and now my group of friends host regular house-gatherings where we can eat, drink, smoke and have all the fun we used to have on commercial premises, only far cheaper.

OK, we're not thrown out of work and claiming benefits, like all the pub and restaurant staff, but that's not our fault. Blame Nanny Blair & Co.

And blame Cast-Iron Cameron for not having the balls to reverse the stupid law, despite what his boss, Von Rumpuy, says.

JuliaM said...

"The poll was aimed at people that had reduced their smoking.

How about the people that still enjoy the same amount of tobacco that they enjoyed before the ban.."


Don't be silly! You don't run a poll to find out something, you run a poll to confirm that the policy you've decided on is the right one...