Liberty Means Responsibility

Smoking is a habit that is dying, but unfortunately, there are still too many people dying (over 70,000 per year in the UK alone). Vaping, on the other hand, which is 95% or more safer than smoking, has become increasingly popular. The UK government, in an election year, has decided to take a tough stance on both. The ‘Tobacco and Vapes Bill’ is supposed to go to Parliament soon, restricting vapes for adults and making it illegal for anyone born after 2009 to purchase cigarettes. Both aspects are laughable since, in a few decades, a 45-year-old will be able to buy cigarettes while his 44-year-old friend won’t, and the proven most effective method of reducing smoking rates—vaping—will likely be regulated in such a way that former smokers will revert to combustible cigarettes, likely asking their older friends to purchase them on their behalf. Yet the Bill is expected to pass.

The first protagonist to attempt a ‘smoke-free generation’ was Jacinda Ardern , the former Prime Minister of New Zealand. But the moment her party lost power, its plan to implement a phased ban was immediately scrapped by the new right-wing coalition government, claiming to use the taxes on cigarettes to cut other taxes. Apart from many Muslim countries or communities where tobacco smoking is ‘haram’ (prohibited), Britain now appears to be alone in the world in planning to phase out smoking completely and irreconcilably restrict vaping, the very product that has, in no small part, accelerated the reduction in smoking rates to record lows.

A readiness to concede personal freedoms in illiberal policies is becoming more evident in the UK, with the severe lockdown during COVID-19 leading the public to accept heavy-handed restrictions, now seeming to cede more individual control to the government. A poll in late 2023 showed a quarter of respondents wanting nightclubs shut and a cap of six people for social gatherings. Yet it wasn’t so long ago that, while Chancellor, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak privately lamented invasive lockdown restrictions. Surely, adults should have the right to make personal choices about how they live their lives? Indoor bans in public locations on smoking have existed in many countries for more than a decade, and rightly so. Since that ban, smoking has become a private choice, phasing out smoking being the right of the individual to determine his or her own destiny, 1.5 million of whom have chosen to switch to vaping.

When the Bill is finally debated in Parliament, will anyone argue that the right to smoke cigarettes is as strong as the right to offend, to drink, to become obese, to neglect personal hygiene, and to vape? Unfortunately, polls are showing that the smoking ban and restriction on vaping products are popular. Let’s be clear about one thing: smoking kills, while vaping regulated and tested products save lives.

Based on statistical analysis, the Cancer Research UK (CRUK) team says that drinking a bottle of wine a week carries the same lifetime cancer risk as smoking up to 10 cigarettes a week in women and 5 in men. Taking that into account, and the fact that far more young people are in A&E wards up and down the country each week due to alcohol, why have the MPs not considered banning alcohol? Maybe that’s a discussion for them while having a subsidised brandy in one of the 30 bars in Westminster Palace.

Respect for individual autonomy has long been a necessary feature of democracy. With this ban and restriction on vaping products, MPs across the parties will vote to erode that respect. “Liberty means responsibility,” said the famous writer George Bernard Shaw. “That is why most men dread it.”

This article was adapted from the original 'LIBERTY GOING OUT OF FASHION?' by Chris Morgan.