The long awaited review of the smoking ban has arrived but no one who reads this report in an open-minded way will be taken in by it — it is riddled with basic errors. Linda Bauld, has proven nothing with this report apart from the fact that she is a true anti tobacco activist. Parts of the Linda Bauld review are backed by evidence provided by…Linda Bauld! At a cost of £487,000 this truly is a shoddy production worthy of any fumbling 16 year old medical student learning their craft.
Chairman of freedom2choose Phil Johnson said, “ It is incredible that rubbish like this is presented to government, worse still, that further restrictions may be imposed on the back of this ‘report’. All heart attack studies claiming fantastic reductions post ban have been rubbished, the BBC even had to apologise after trumpeting the Pell study loudly and widely as evidence. The truth being that pre ban/post ban figures are much of a muchness!”
Commenting on the claim that businesses showed a net positive effect post ban he said,“ just where do these people live, in which world? 8,000 businesses have gone to the wall since July 2007, more than 150 Bingo halls have closed (at tremendous loss of revenue to the Government) yet cancer rates have risen 4% (M) & 3.75% (F) during the first year of the ban. It is time this government allowed choice, too many businesses have been forced out of business yet if smoking rooms were allowed the pubs would flourish once more, as would the internal economy. The costs of this poorly implemented ban have been phenomenal, not to mention losses in revenue to a government already financially strapped. Freedom to choose for themselves’ is all people ask. There may be small risks associated with smoking but so too are there risks in everything we do, we are all adults who have the right to decide for ourselves”.
http://www.freedom2choose.info/docs/f2cresponsetoBauldreview.html