News archive

29.08.09: High cigarette prices in Britain have led to £2 billion lost tax revenue as smuggling rises, reports The Telegraph.

25.08.09: BBC and Department of Health accused of "gross exaggeration" in 'shisha worse than cigarettes' report: Read the full story.

13.08.09: E-mails released under the Freedom of Information Act reveal how the Department of Health and ASH co-operated to swing the Lords debate on the tobacco display ban. Read the full story: The Dark Market.

01.08.09: Appeals Court judge calls smoking ban in mental hospitals "disproportionate" and "discriminatory". Read more.

16.06.09: Exclusive interview with long-standing anti-smoking spokesman David Goerlitz. Read about it at Spiked and listen to the whole extraordinary interview here.

19.05.09: The author will be speaking (and signing copies of Velvet Glove) at FOREST's 30th birthday celebrations on 22nd June. Details at Taking Liberties.

29.04.09: The author will be giving a talk at Leeds University on Saturday 2nd May (6.00pm) on the subject of smoking bans and heart attack miracles.

08.04.09: "Is this what they are aiming for - a global prison?"
Respected tobacco researcher Dr Kamal Chaouachi talks to the author about the anti-smoking movement. Exclusive interview.

02.04.09: New Scientist reports the English heart attack data. Does this make them deniers?

26.03.09: English hospital allegedly bans smokers (not just smoking) from entering maternity ward. ASH (US) calls for further action to protect people from 'thirdhand smoke'. See here and here

25.02.09: Exclusive! NHS releases English heart attack admission data. No discernible change since the smoking ban came in. Read more.

08.01.09: New year, new scare. Thirdhand smoke is finally unleashed! Science makes way for faith. Read more in Beyond Belief.

09.12.08: Britain to pass law banning tobacco from the sight of shoppers. BBC claims that similar legislation has reduced teen smoking in Iceland and Canada but the figures don't add up.

02.12.08: Chris Snowdon reports on the Scottish miracle for Spiked magazine. Dave Hitt covers the story in his latest junk science podcast.

02.02.08: Dr Michael Siegel offers $200 to any anti-smoking group that reports the new Scottish data.

28.11.08: Exclusive! New data from the Scottish government shows large rise in cases of acute coronary syndrome in second year of smoking ban. Read more. 28.11.08: Thousands protest against the smoking ban in Holland. Read more

07.11.08: Smokers banned from fostering children in the UK. Read more

28.10.08: EU takes first steps towards Europe-wide smoking ban.

25.10.08: Cost of smoking to the NHS has risen from £1.7 billion to £2.7 billion in 10 years despite fewer people smoking, according to ASH UK. Read more here .
In July, alcohol was said to cost the NHS exactly the same amount (see here). 05.10.08: Smoking ban repealed in Switzerland. See here

03.10.08: India introduces smoking ban but is unable to enforce it. See here

05.08.08: Velvet Glove author obtains data from Wales showing that heart attack incidence rose after the Welsh smoking ban. Politician accused of wilfully misleading the public. See original article and this from Dr Michael Siegel, plus this from (the excellent) Reason magazine.

31.07.08: Ten months after it hit the headlines, the Scottish heart attack study has finally been published. Initial suspicions have been confirmed. Read more here.

06.07.08: The British Medical Association sets 2035 as a "realistic" date for wiping out smoking in the UK, according to the BBC.

28.06.08: ASH (USA) supports banning smoking in the home "even if no nonsmokers' health is being put at risk". Tobacco control expert Dr Michael Siegel criticises the measure here.

26.06.08: It had to happen. A new study claims that smoker's breath gives nonsmokers respiratory diseases!

16.06.08: Several newspapers have reported that there has been a "a dramatic fall in the number of heart attack patients being admitted to emergency wards in England" as a result of the smoking ban. This nonsense has already been thoroughly debunked here and I have my two cents here.

31.05.08:A new opinion poll shows Gordon Brown is the most unpopular Prime Minister since polling began in 1943. The economy is in trouble, fuel and food prices are at an all-time high, knife crime is out of control and British soldiers continue to die in Iraq and Afghanistan. There can only be one solution - more bans and more anti-smoking laws.

19.05.08: The British government has today launched a multi-million pound alcohol awareness campaign after it was revealed that most British adults do not know how many units of alcohol are in a glass of wine. Could this be because the government quietly moved the goalposts again last year? Read more in this free excerpt from Chapter 13 of Velvet Glove, Iron Fist.