Health Bill [HL]

That was an amazing contribution from the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours. I preface my comments by saying that we have moved a long way. I am going back many years but I remember discussing in the Chamber nicotine patches and whether they should be available for free on the National Health Service. All that was pooh-poohed. I also remember a Member of the House who movingly spoke about being addicted to heroin or crack cocaine and managing to get off it through a lot of treatment. He still speaks openly about it, but he has never been able to get off smoking. The only time he was able to do so was through the sheer force of his wife’s power. Every time she became pregnant he stopped smoking, but after three children she decided that she did not want to go on with that option. Similarly—I am generalising from the particular—my sister was an alcoholic. She was dried out but she still could not give up cigarettes. She said it was so much easier to go dry and not give up cigarettes. She eventually died of cancer, but even to within a year of her death she still could not do it. The noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, made a very good point: there is a lot of information going around about what one can do about cancer—exercise, look after your diet, do not smoke, of course—and there is a great deal of emphasis on it. Similarly with heart disease: exercise, diet, do not smoke But no global statement is made by the health authorities and the Government—and why should it be made by them? The commentators in the newspapers who talk about lifestyles should say that smoking is the one thing we should all try to do something about. When listening to the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, I jotted down that we need to support those people who realise it is an addiction and just cannot break it. Too often when we see people smoking we say, "Why do you not give up, for heaven’s sake. You know what it is doing. Every single cigarette you smoke is taking five minutes off your life", but support is what they need, not criticism. We need additional research into the means of stopping smoking. The noble Baroness, Lady Tonge, mentioned patches, and they have been effective for people whom I know. However, no body of research or opinion is available to help people who desperately want to give up smoking that outlines the options and indicates which are best for those who have a certain lifestyle, work in a certain place or are overstressed. We need to encourage that because there is no question that smoking kills. Therefore, I wholeheartedly support the proposed strategy.