History is Written by the Victors

Isn’t that the saying? Instead, the Mayor of Greater Manchester; one Andy Burnham, is looking to make Greater Manchester “the first City Region in Europe to make smoking history.”.

Not sure how well that is going to work sunshine.

Y’see, on the eve of the ten-year anniversary of the most illiberal and damaging legislation which saw an accelerated decline of the British Pub, Mr Burnham wanted to drive down the smoking rates in Greater Manchester ‘faster and further than achieved anywhere else’:

Slogans eh? A bit like ‘Strong & Stable’, or ‘For the many, not the few’.

Now, if this new website and the accompanying survey is the result of this ‘serious conversation’, it’s taken a while. Somehow, I doubt this is the culmination of a ‘serious conversation’, instead it seems that Andy Burnham has a pole up his ass about smoking:

It seems Mr Burnham’s vision from his time as Health Minister is entirely undiminished:

The licensing of tobacco retailers has reared its head in a few other places, notably Wales & Scotland. As has the extension of smoke-free areas appeared before. Not content with just banishing smokers to the outdoors; where they are far more visible to The Children™ than ever before, the likes of Andy Burnham now want to make it impossible for people to smoke (and vape, because that’ll be included in the various policies, natch) anywhere.

Naturally, ASH believes this strategy “is a solid foundation for the future.” Funnily enough, the Greater Manchester Tobacco Plan is based on the, now outdated, WHO MPOWER program. Birds of a feather.

Thing is, as we’ve seen before, once one domino starts to fall others will surely follow.

See how it works yet?