Big tobacco: still winning friends and influencing people
21st May 2015
By Amanda Davey
The lobbying power of big tobacco is impressive to be sure.
And nowhere is this more evident than in Britain, where a troubling BMJ investigation highlights the ongoing influence of this mighty sector on the country’s politicians.
According to the report, 38 MPs have accepted £60,000 ($AU117,760) of industry hospitality since 2010. This, in itself, is bad enough until we discover that more than half of them are from constituencies in which the number of smoking-related deaths exceeds the national average.