Those of us who are familiar with the tactics of ASH know full well that these figures are rubbish and the purpose of my post was to try and demonstrate that.
What was quite refreshing was that all the people who commented on the Lancashire Telegraph article were of the same mind, that the figures quoted were nonsense and ASH should keep their noses out of peoples private lives.
Now I don't really get this Twitter thing much but I noticed the reporter who wrote the article is on Twitter so I decided to ask for his response to the comments.
He replied.
I would suggest that ASH's figures are not guesswork. To make a guess you need to have some idea to begin with and be aiming in some way for the truth. The figures that ASH quote are out and out lies, plucked out of the air to fit a specific agenda.
"..but smoking is costly and does ruin many lives". The financial cost was covered in my last post on this. The 'human' cost and the ruined lives? Well, smoking does kill some people and give others hideous diseases. Smokers are all aware of this; some have chosen to accept the risks.
Telling smokers that tobacco causes all manner of diseases that it doesn't, scaring them to death in order to force them to give up and then telling them that nicotine is more addictive than heroin, that has got to have a negative impact on their lives.
Throwing smokers out of their traditional social meeting places then telling everyone else that smokers must be ostracised and denormalised because they are killing all around them, effectively banishing them into a world of isolation and shame where they must endure the hatred of the anti smokers? That is going to have a serious affect on smokers lives. That is even going to ruin lives, and for no good reason, only spite.
Besides, the costs to the taxpayer of ASH's hateful games is not a small one.
Join us later for more Dance like yer dad!
5 Comments:
Post a Comment