Monday 13 April 2015

Gabriel Scally's Big Fat Fail

In the run up to the election, the far left public health community is working hard to get their favoured Labour puppets elected.

One of these is proud socialist Gabriel Scally, a very rich guy who revels in being described as an NHS 'whistleblower' but who protests loudly when others use valid channels to expose lies surrounding tobacco control. He is also a monumental hypocrite on Twitter too.

However, over the weekend his one-eyed election zealotry showed him to be an even bigger twit than we previously realised. On Saturday he threw out this partisan tweet which was shared by such lefty luminaries as Dr Éoin "sorry I was wrong" Clarke, and Luciana "I haven't a clue" Berger.

Spitting on the coalition for its public health record on smoking is quite astonishing when you consider it banned vending machines, introduced the tobacco display ban - despite being in opposition in 2010 - and passed utterly pointless plain packaging in its final act before dissolution, but it should prove to politicians that appeasing nanny statists is a counterproductive exercise. Something it's long overdue them learning.

Anyway, I digress. Because Scally's point is just plain stupid. So he's trying to portray a reduction in people visiting Stop Smoking Services as a failure? Shouldn't he be looking at official prevalence figures instead? You know, like a proper, well-paid, objective health advocate should?

Here they are, and - not that Scally will ever admit it - the figures on decreased smoking prevalence since the "Tory/LibDem Gov" came to power make interesting viewing.


By the end of the last Labour government, it had almost stalled to zero, yet has picked up under the coalition, with a massive uptick at the start of 2014/15.

What's more, if we analyse those percentages we find that the change in prevalence has been increasing year on year under Cameron's government.

2010/11: 3.2%
2011/12: 3.3%
2012/13: 3.5%
2013/14: 4.1%
2014/15: 9.2%

If you're wondering how this is worked out, it is by using Simon Chapman's method of calculating incremental change which was enthusiastically tweeted by Gabriel Scally at the time.

So, to be consistent, Scally should surely be celebrating the ever-increasing decrease in smoking prevalence under the Tories, yes? And maybe even the biggest recorded decrease ever if the 2015 trend continues.

Now, I know what you're thinking, this isn't down to coalition policies and why is there no mention of e-cigs. And you're correct, the effect above is mostly because e-cigs are encouraging smokers to quit more than any hectoring from Scally and his hideous chums. This is borne out by the methods reported as being used by quitters, taken again from the Smoking Toolkit Study.


How 'bout that? More people are using e-cigs they pay for out of their own pocket, and far fewer are using pharmaceutical patches and gum which are provided at the expense of the NHS, at the same time that quit attempts are becoming increasingly successful.

What's not to like? Stop Smoking Services (SSS) are expending fewer resources yet the amount of people quitting smoking is going up. How can that possibly be called a failure unless one believes that more people using the SSS would bring even greater results? One way of doing that would surely be to go hell for leather and get SSS to advocate e-cigs wholesale.

However, that's not the Labour party's policy at all. Indeed, Scally's Labour party shepherded the disastrous EU TPD through Brussels - which will demolish the potential of e-cigs for millions of people - while coalition partners the Tories and LibDems were at least willing to listen to vapers and were overall supportive. It's arguable, in fact, that if the Labour party had been in power over the last five years, the e-cig industry would have all but been destroyed already in the UK.

But, y'see, Scally doesn't like e-cigs and has said that he wants to see them regulated out of existence and their use banned just about everywhere. It is exactly people like Scally who are preventing e-cigs being advocated at smoking cessation clinics up and down the country. If he wants to see an effective public health policy from the next government, and more use of Stop Smoking Services, perhaps the best way would be to make it relevant to the way people are freely choosing to quit smoking, instead of sticking to outdated ideology, political loyalty and irrational dogma.

The only 'public health' failure here is Scally's sixth form political views, his appalling judgement, and the incoherent policies of his fellow mouth-breathers on the left.


9 comments:

dodderer1 said...

It is an unfortunate fact that quitting success(due to ecigs) has increased greatly as SSS numbers have halved.The obvious socialist policy response is to hamstring ecigs and put more money into SSS.No doubt Richard Murphy will claim that it will be self-financing!

truckerlyn said...

Poor Scally! Is he losing out on his investment in big pharma because their sales of NRT are dropping like a stone?


Like many other bansturbators of smoking, I am sure he must have his fingers in the pie too - don't they all?


I am sure that none of them really give a toss whether smoking is decreasing much, so long as the precious NRT is still being widely used so that their cause (or pockets) can continue to receive gratuities from big pharma!

ScottWichall said...

Well, one mustn't forget he is a leftie, so for all his platitudes, the last thing he actually wants is for people to stop smoking and his source of trouser stuffing to dry up. These fucks are in it for a career, and I think the scales have started to fall from a lot of people's eyes with the behavior of the public health crew.

truckerlyn said...

"the scales have started to fall from a lot of people's eyes with the behavior of the public health crew."


I so hope you are right on that, but I have to say, I am not too sure. Many people who have succumbed to the drivel sold to them by ASH and the like are often too proud to admit they were taken in! Especially if they have some public status!

ScottWichall said...

Well, even my missus calls bullshit now when the latest load of bollocks is spouted on TV.. and she rarely drinks and has never smoked!

truckerlyn said...

Good for her. She is obviously not one of those who is afraid to admit to being wrong, so all credit to her.

jmshigham said...

In a more general sense, it's testament to the results whenever the government tries to interfere and regulate on any matter - it always turns to ashes.

Dick_Puddlecote said...

Unfortunate for self-interested troughers, but a joy for anyone who wants real results with a smaller cost to state finances ... i.e. everyone who isn't insane.

Dick_Puddlecote said...

In this case there isn't even the fig leaf of caring for the public. Regulating e-cigs out of existence is purely driven by 'public health' spite that results are being achieved without their help. They belong in jail.