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3 weeks ago | 
thecritic.co.uk | Christopher Snowdon
It is nonsense to claim that some cigarettes are not safer than others The Tobacco and Vapes Bill hasn’t become law yet, but Action on Smoking and Health have already announced their next set of demands.
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4 weeks ago | 
thecritic.co.uk | Christopher Snowdon
A policy of endless borrowing has been a miserable failure The government’s policy is to borrow as much money as possible without alarming the bond markets, and to do this every year indefinitely. This is not just the policy of Rachel Reeves. It was also the policy of Jeremy Hunt and it will almost certainly be the policy of whoever follows Reeves. It is an unspoken political consensus.
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4 weeks ago | 
insider.iea.org.uk | Christopher Snowdon
In this series of posts, the IEA’s Dr Christopher Snowdon explains the background and beliefs of the anti-smoking, anti-alcohol, anti-obesity and anti-gambling movements in the UK. This is Part 2, on alcohol. Part 3 on food is available next week, or to paid subscribers immediately here. Read Part 1 on tobacco here.
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1 month ago | 
thecritic.co.uk | Christopher Snowdon
Attempts to stamp out cigarettes could be having unintended consequences Is smoking making a comeback? The Guardian reported this week that “Smoking rates in parts of England have increased for the first time in nearly two decades”. It is wise to be wary of such claims since they are usually accompanied by demands for more taxpayers’ money to be thrown at obsolete stop-smoking services.
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1 month ago | 
spectator.co.uk | Christopher Snowdon
The alleged ‘success’ of Mexico’s tax on sugary drinks inspired George Osborne to announce a sugar tax for the UK in 2016. But the news that the tax has led to children being poisoned by drinking frozen slushy ice drinks suggests it – just like Mexico’s – could be doing more harm than good. Mexico’s levy was said to have reduced demand for sugary drinks in the country – it would have been surprising if it didn’t.
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1 month ago | 
spectator.com.au | Christopher Snowdon
The alleged ‘success’ of Mexico’s tax on sugary drinks inspired George Osborne to announce a sugar tax for the UK in 2016. But the news that the tax has led to children being poisoned by drinking frozen slushy ice drinks suggests it – just like Mexico’s – could be doing more harm than good.
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1 month ago | 
spectator.co.uk | Christopher Snowdon
Why do single-issue campaigners oppose solutions to their problems? Once you become aware of ‘not invented here’ syndrome, you start to see it everywhere: climate change activists lobbying against nuclear energy, anti-smoking campaigners campaigning against e-cigarettes, anti-obesity campaigners complaining about weight loss drugs. There are even some anti-alcohol campaigners who want to clamp down on alcohol-free beer.
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1 month ago | 
spectator.com.au | Christopher Snowdon
Why do single-issue campaigners oppose solutions to their problems? Once you become aware of ‘not invented here’ syndrome, you start to see it everywhere: climate change activists lobbying against nuclear energy, anti-smoking campaigners campaigning against e-cigarettes, anti-obesity campaigners complaining about weight loss drugs. There are even some anti-alcohol campaigners who want to clamp down on alcohol-free beer.
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1 month ago | 
thecritic.co.uk | Christopher Snowdon
The argument against PAs in the NHS remains unconvincing It is rare for a study to generate excitable headlines when its main conclusion is that more research is needed, but that is what happened last week when the British Medical Journal published a “rapid systematic review” of how physician associates (PAs) fare in the NHS. The authors looked at the academic literature and, after employing some strenuous exclusion criteria, concluded that it is “sparse and of variable quality”.
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1 month ago | 
velvetgloveironfist.blogspot.com | Christopher Snowdon
I've returned to the topic of bad obesity predictions for The Critic. What is the purpose of pointless projections that are so bad they make the Bank of England look like clairvoyants? The authors of the 2011 Lancet study admitted that their projections were “mere extrapolations from available data” and that “past trends do not always predict the future”. Indeed they do not. In Britain, the big rise in obesity ended twenty years ago and its causes are not fully understood.
