It's hard to fathom how an organisation that casts itself in the role of defender of personal freedom can share so much common ground with the tobacco industry.
Tobacco is quite possibly the greatest usurper of individual freedom in the history of the planet. Not only is it among the most addictive substances known to man, it kills half its regular users. What more conclusive denial of freedom is there than your premature death?
Yet the right-wing UK think-tank, the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), and its director, Christopher Snowdon, are at one with the industry in their opposition to tobacco control measures – such as high tax and tough regulation – that have been crucial to reducing the number of smokers in Ireland by around 200,000 over the last six years.
Given the public health catastrophe of a near jumbo jet load of smoking-related deaths a month here, it's hard to escape the conclusion that whatever rating the IEA's brand of free market economics puts on the freedom of the individual, it's not as important as the freedom of corporations to make profits.
Of course, they're entitled to their view. But to conceal such dodgy doctrine behind the smokescreen of a meeting in Dublin last week, titled 'How to Really Stop People Smoking', is the height of cynicism.
Indeed, for those who are reducing smoking rates here without the help of any UK libertarian think-tanks, the IEA's sudden interest raised more questions than it answered. For starters, why would an organisation that has no stake in Ireland and has shown no apparent interest in our health throughout its 58-year existence now want to help us cut our smoking rates?
Source: Chris Macey, Irish Independent, 07/11/13
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