Last Orders podcast - the new year naggathon

We recorded a new Spiked Last Orders podcast last week, with John O'Connell (Taxpayers' Alliance) as our special guest. We discussed the annual glut of post-Christmas nagging from the pretend public health lobby, as well as the roast potato scare and Public Health England's alcohol review.

As ever, you can subscribe to the podcast on iTiunes or listen online here.

For more on the Public Health England report, see my critique on the IEA blog...

In summary, the PHE alcohol review cannot be taken seriously as a review of either science or policy. It makes no real attempt to assess the negative consequences of raising prices or prohibiting advertising and its view of the effectiveness of such policies for improving health is rose-tinted. Time and time again, it ignores real world evidence in favour of hypothetical models created by likeminded campaigners. It contains so many glaring factual errors that it raises serious questions about the competence of its authors, and it is so clearly designed to support anti-market policies that it should be viewed as part of the campaigning literature.