Government Health Minister Jo Churchill, speaking to the zealots of the Smoking & Health All Party Parliamentary Group, described their proposal to raise the smoking age from 18 to 21 as “interesting”. In the Zoom meeting, Churchill also congratulated members of APPG for their tireless work on “tobacco control”. Her comments sound terrifyingly Orwellian…
She adds that the recommendations discussed in the APPG report reflect the “same priorities that we [the government] are looking at for the new strategy.” According to the 2021 Nanny State Index, lifestyle restrictions on eating, drinking, and smoking have all steadily increased across Europe for the past four years. As Covid restrictions are slowly lifted, the government needs to stop its nannying and let people live their lives in peace…
Health Minister and mother of four Jo Churchill quickly apologised for being overly-parental in the Chamber this morning, scolding heckling opposition MPs as “children” to get them to calm down. The Speaker was not best pleased to see a Minister attempt to do his job for him. In fairness to Jo, it worked…
Always keen to see an MP at the end of a rope, Guido popped down to the annual parliamentary Tug of War last night (all proceeds to Macmillan Cancer Support). Ladies first – Macmillan employees versus Therese Coffey’s team of MPs. Kelly Tolhurst chose the losing side again…
Then the men’s Lords v Commons bout, which saw well-built Remainiacs Alec Shelbrooke (his sixth tug of war appearance) trialling the phrase “Remain” instead of “Stay” as a rallying cry to team-mates. Though in the end it was the Leave heavers who made the difference – hardman captain Mike Penning and Eurosceptic musclemen Nigel Adams and David Burrowes tugged their team to victory. Even the Daily Politics’ Giles Dilnot turning out as a ringer for the Lords couldn’t stop them. Highlight was Bercow calling Shelbrooke “a very big bloke” – Shelbers replied “it’s all relative…”
