Could this anti-smoking sockpuppet be a victim of its own success?

According to the Charity Commission, the prohibitionist astro-turf group Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) relieved taxpayers of £245,000 in 2024/25. Donations from the general public brought in a miserable £4,607. 

This racket has been going on for more than fifty years now and is surely due to come to an end. ASH's grifters are currently trying to gold-plate the Tobacco and Vapes Bill with ludicrous ideas such as individual warnings on cigarettes and banning filters, but since prohibition now has cross-party support, it is hard to see what purpose ASH serves. 

ASH themselves seem to recognise this. In their 'Statement of Risk', they openly ponder why the government needs to keep funding an extremist pressure group to lobby itself when anti-smoking extremism is now the norm amongst the political class. 

In the short term, they have got into bed with NHS England to work on "prevention and health inequalities". That, presumably, is where their £245,000 came from. In the long term, who knows? Most likely, they will pivot to becoming an anti-vaping group, but perhaps they will turn their attention to ultra-processed food, betting or red meat.

My article featuring ASH and other government sock puppets is still outside the paywall for now: Bootlegging Baptists: the logic of paternalistic collective action.  

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