nickshanagher

The Financial Times was quick to praise David Cameron for his support of moves to introduce plain packaging of tobacco. “This law - likely to be passed by MPs in a free vote – will be the most significant step in years to boost public health in Britain. It is welcome,” it thunders. This is a remarkable claim. Even supporters for the measure admit the evidence is marginal and the impact expected to be small. Perhaps the newspaper believes there has been little progress on public health in recent years. The letters pages were mainly silent on the FT’s stance. Noteworthy was a response from Britain’s greatest living artist David Hockney. He advised the FT: “ You state that cigarettes will be sold in ‘boxes decorated in an off-putting shade of olive green’. I don’t believe there are ‘off-putting’ colours, especially for a cigarette packet. The colour will be quite beautiful in a couple of weeks.” But I think there is a smarter objection based on the ideas of Adam Smith. In the The...