Nannying over smoking
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Andrew Lansley has repeatedly talked about being a health secretary who will give people a nudge rather than nanny them - the suggestion being Labour was very much a nannying party.
So when Labour first suggested the idea of banning the display of cigarettes and tobacco in shops to try and reduce the number of people who smoke, Lansley was opposed to the idea.
Fast forward through the election and Lansley's initial promises to be a nudger not a nanny, and we have the sight of the always-tanned health secretary saying he'll be banning the display of ciggies in shops.
According to the Department of Health, the Tobacco Control Plan (if that isn't a Nanny state term, I don't what is) aims to do the following:
The Tobacco Control Plan has three ambitions. These are to reduce smoking rates in England by the end of 2015 to:
18.5% or less among adults (from 21.2%)
12% or less among 15 year olds (from 15%)
11% or less among pregnant women (from 14%)
The theory goes that if tobacco isn't on display in most shops people go into, it is less likely they'll take up smoking, or continue smoking. They'll have to ask for it from under the counter. Really.
In terms of reducing the number of under 15s smoking from 15% to 12% - and to be frank, that's hardly a big goal - making fags an under-the-counter product is a massive own goal.
Smoking, to some teens, is something which is cool because they're not supposed to do it. Making them more secretive to purchase - a nudge, nudge, wink from the shopkeeper to open the drawer under the counter - is bonkers.
Is Andrew Lansley going native at the DoH? Or just following the over-arching Tory policy of forgetting everything they said before the election?
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David Higgerson - David Higgerson has covered local and national politics for much of his career as a journalist. This blog aims to look at Westminister from the outside in, at a time when it appears very few are looking out from the inside.
Totally counter-productive - it wouldn't surprise me if more of the younger aged took up smoking as a result; if it's forbidden it's just too tempting. Like a sort of bonding method.