Since DPF has taken off for a few days of sun on Great Barrier Is — the local greens are said to be arming themselves in readiness, but just with water pistols, you understand — the squad of giddy right-wing toadies collectively known as the ‘kiwiblog right’ must at bit of a loss. So, not wanting to see lesser species suffer unduly, I have undertaken to provide some of the masterful ‘cut-and-paste’ commentary for which KB is noted.
Here goes…
New figures from two separate surveys showing smoking among adults at a “record low”, and a downturn in youth smoking, are to be applauded.
According to the Herald report, “smoking kills about 5000 people a year, including nearly 400 deaths attributed to secondhand smoke.” Then there’s the often delibiltating disease. And as The Standard notes, these drops are good news for our quality of life (as any Galbraiths regular can tell you) and productivity too.
Helen Clark has championed many of the legal initiatives that have led to this result. She deserves plaudits, and lots of them.
Former principal medical officer in the Dept of Health, Dr Murray Laugensen, thinks that a likely cause is that “the psychological effect of the smokefree workplaces legislation, which came into effect at the end of 2004, has brought about a change in public attitudes to smoking.”
Of course, such initiatives proved too easy a target for political opponents trading in the rhetoric of the “nanny state” and other right-wing shibboleths, and they denounced such initiatives as infringing important freedoms.
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