Velvet Glove, Iron Fist

Thursday, 28 October 2010

Argumentum ad peer review

A good article by Sandy Starr about the argumentum ad peer review in Times Higher Education, which echoes what Brendan O'Neil wrote in Spiked back in August.

This part particularly appealed to me, for obvious reasons:

Once politicised in this way, peer review becomes a sort of quarantine, where ideas can be contested only by a select few before being presented to us as a fait accompli. Take, for example, the attitude of epidemiologists Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson, authors of the book The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better. They state imperiously: “Almost all of the research presented and synthesised in The Spirit Level had previously been peer-reviewed…In order to distinguish between well-founded criticism and unsubstantiated claims made for political purposes, all future debate should take place in peer-reviewed publications.”

Such disdain for arguments motivated by “political purposes” speaks (non-peer-reviewed) volumes.

As I have said before, there is no better alternative to peer review and there is nothing inherently wrong with it. The only problem with peer review is its public perception as a stamp of absolute truth. While honest academics in any field tend to be realistic about their limitations, something about human nature requires things to be seen in black and white, good and evil, right and wrong.

That peer review is merely a form of editorial control, which—at times—represents nothing more than allowing colleagues to publish an article the house magazine is a truth that is lost in the rush for certainty. As a rule of thumb, anyone who defends their work on the appeal to peer review and the appeal to authority alone, while shying away from debate about the work itself, should be treated with suspicion.

Starr concludes:

Peer review is valuable and worth defending, but only inasmuch as it promotes impartiality and standards within specialist fields. It should not be used as an arbiter of how we run our affairs. We already have a system for that – it’s called politics. And we are all qualified to participate in it, by virtue of being born human.

Please go read.

Sandy Starr will be appearing at the Battle of Ideas in London at the end of the month. Should be interesting.

Lie through your teeth

I've occasionally wondered why dentists have never shown the same enthusiasm for lifestyle regulation as doctors. You never hear the dental equivalent of the British Medical Association calling for tax rises on sugary drinks and a ban on gobstoppers.

Cynical minds would say this is because dentists usually work in the private sector. While it often seems that doctors view patients as an unnecessary obstacle keeping them from the gold course, dentists could be forgiven for wanting the government to subsidise pork scratchings and boiled sweets.

Whatever the motives, dental patients have learnt not expect to expect the Spanish Inquisition (no one expects the Spanish Inquisition, etc.). But then along comes this idiot, and now Alex Deane at Big Brother Watch has told his tale of unit-counting at his dental surgery.

From Big Brother Watch:

Dentist: we haven’t got details of your alcohol intake.

Me: no, you haven’t.

Dentist: well, there’s a health form - we’ve got to have it!

Me: no, you don’t.

Dentist: well, what am I supposed to put in this space, then?

Me: you can put that I said it’s none of your business.

Dentist: Alex, you don’t seem to understand – this is to guard against oral cancer.

Nought to cancer in four questions!! Talk about bringing out the big guns. Needless to say, the exchange ended:

Me: I’ll take my chances

Dentist: (total disbelief) So I’ve got to put that you won’t tell me?

Me: Yup.

As it happens, my own dentist is a good friend of mine so I have been spared all of this. He knows exactly how much I've been drinking most weekends and any lectures from him would, in any case, be laughably hypocritical. He also tells me that in 12 years in practice, he has only ever diagnosed one case of oral cancer. (It is a fairly rare disease, claiming fewer than 2,000 lives in England and Wales last year.)

But Dick Puddlecote confirms that this line of questioning is now not only standard, but compulsory.

I had a similar experience a couple of months ago when moving to a different dental practice and signing in for a check up. In this case, I was given the form to fill in myself. I completed it but left the question on 'alcohol units per week' blank, assuming that it was optional. Having handed it to the receptionist and reseated myself to continue reading a riveting copy of OK magazine (yes, it was the only *cough* literature available, and yes, I was being sarcy), she called me back to point out that I had not answered all the questions.

"Oh, I didn't think that one was compulsory", said I, politely, to which she countered that she couldn't register me at the practice unless it was filled in. I just took the pen, placed a big fat zero in the box, handed it to her with a smile, and sat down again. The look I received was a mixture of disdain and anger. She knew the answer was untrue but - short of accusing me of being a liar in public - there was nothing she could do about it.

Unless you actually like being lectured, what better way to deal with intrusive questions from the state?

Oink

As reported by Iain Dale, ConservativeHome and others, FOREST have produced a report showing the scale of public funding involved in Britain's anti-tobacco industry (if that doesn't work, try this). It's comprehensive and is worth downloading, reading and keeping for reference.

As is apparent from Iain Dale's post, many people remain unaware that the 'health groups' and 'charities' who petition for anti-smoking (and other neo-prohibitionist) legislation are quangos in all but name. The fact that charities like ASH raise next-to-nothing in the way of public donations speaks volumes about how little grassroots support these organisations have.

Some of the figures are bafflingly high. Smoke Free North West (who contributed the bulk of responses to Labour's dodgy consultation on display bans) received £1.9m from the taxpayer—ten times more than ASH (England). ASH (Scotland) receives £1.4m to serve a population ten times smaller than England, while employing a staggering 27 people. The UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies—the home of Anna Gilmore and a lobby group in all but name—has been given £3.7m.

In any bonfire of the quangos, these astroturf groups should be the first on the list. I can think of no reason at all why the taxpayer should be forced to fund lobbyists. It is a throwback to the worst excesses of the last government, which routinely used public money to manufacture support for its own policies. Unless the coalition puts an end to this dubious practice, it will be seen to be condoning the Machiavellian tricks of the previous administration while making a mockery of its claim to be the party of responsible spending.

It's really pretty simple. If these groups are providing a public service (such as smoking cessation), they should be incorporated into the Department of Health where they will have to be accountable (and, importantly, subject to the Freedom of Information Act). This is what is happening in Ireland.

If they don't provide a public service (and most are purely lobbyists), then there is no case for them to be funded by the government they are lobbying. If ASH et al. are going present themselves as charities then they should act like charities and do their own fund-raising instead of forcing hardworking people to graft to keep them in the manner to which they have become accustomed. As Longrider said recently:

Well, firstly, if these charities do things that people want, they will fund them voluntarily. If they fail due to lack of funds, then people don’t want them and they will deservedly disappear. If they are providing essential public services, then why are they charities at all?

Quite so. This is an open and shut case. It's time for the anti-smoking lobby to stand on their own two feet.

Who didn't see this coming?

I've written a few times about the myth that smoking bans are truly "comprehensive" outside of Britain and Ireland. In truth, other countries have passed laws which—while still trampling inexcusably on property rights—are far less draconian than those seen elsewhere in the world.

In other nations smoking bans have been relaxed (Holland, Croatia, Poland), or were relaxed to begin with (Portugal, Denmark, Belgium), or are simply ignored (Holland again, Greece and everywhere outside Europe).

And it seems that I am not alone in observing this...

While partial or total smoking bans have been introduced in many European countries ending patrons' ability to smoke in bars, cafes and other public venues, it is still relatively easy in some states to find a bolt-hole where smokers are welcome, whether due to exceptions to such laws or owners flouting the bans.

We can't be having that now, can we? And the response from the (unelected) European Commission should come as no surprise.

Health commissioner John Dalli has said he wants to put a stop to this.

"We need a complete ban on smoking in all public spaces, transport and the workplace," he said in an interview on Monday (11 October) with German daily Die Welt.

The EU wanting to override national sovereignty is not a massive shock. And there had been noises on the smoking front.

Announcing that Brussels is currently preparing a bill to be brought forward next year, he said that exceptions should no longer be tolerated

Then perhaps they could start by banning smoking in the EU's offices, where the last attempt to stop MEPs smoking ended within weeks after the political class revolted?

The commission will furthermore try to win agreement on rules making tobacco products no longer visible to customers and make packaging as unattractive as possible. The packets are to be made identical in appearance and to bear colourful warning pictures, such as of diseased lungs, as well as more information on the toxins the product contains.

"The more uniform and bland packaging the cigarettes are, the better," said the commissioner.

Quite. And who better to make things bland and uniform than the European Commission?

How harm reduction works

A little story from Iceland tells a bigger story about how tobacco harm reduction could, and does, work in practice...

The sale of cigarettes has decreased significantly this year compared to 2009. According to the State Alcohol and Tobacco Company of Iceland (ÁTVR), sales dropped by almost 13 percent in the first nine months.

However, at the same time the sale of snuff and chewing tobacco has increased by 9.2 percent—at the end of September almost 18.8 tons of snuff and chewing tobacco had been sold in Iceland, Morgunbladid reports.

Cause and effect? Coincidence? Who knows? But if cigarette smokers are happy to switch to snuff and chewing tobacco, what would happen if they had access to snus, which is both less hazardous and—so many people say—more pleasurable than either?

Alas, the sale of snus remains illegal in Iceland, as it is in the whole EU (Sweden excepted).

Way to go, public health prohibitionists!

Campaigners call for desert island smoking ban

Anti-smoking campaigners have called a smoking ban on desert islands "the next logical step" in the war against second- and third-hand smoke. Deborah Arnott, director of Action on Smoking and Health, is leading a campaign for a total smoking ban across the world's islets and archipelagos: "It is a common misconception that smoking on a patch of land in the middle of the ocean poses no threat to others," she said.

"But we know there is no safe level of secondhand smoke. Cigarettes contain 4,000 chemicals which can travel hundreds of miles, contaminating nonsmokers, especially children, in neighbouring countries and pose a particular risk to passing sailors, especially children. There is overwhelming evidence that toxins remain on the torn trousers of shipwrecked travellers for years, which poses a serious health threat to potential rescuers, especially children."

At the moment there is little evidence that secondhand smoke can travel over international waters but scientists at the UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies have promised to study the issue. "We'll get the evidence, don't you worry about," Arnott said. "For too long people have used loopholes like living thousands of miles from civilisation as a way to get around the hugely popular smoking ban. We need to send a clear message to smokers: we will track you to the ends of the earth."

ASH's new campaign has received high profile support from Glasgow-born millionaire Duncan Bannatyne and former desert island resident Man Friday.

Speaking at a press conference organised by Pfizer, Mr Friday said: "For most people, a desert island is a place to get away from it all and listen to their favourite records. They forget that for people like me it is a workplace and we deserve the same protection as other workers. By their very nature, desert islands tend to be unregulated and it is people like me and the fat kid with glasses from Lord of the Flies who end up paying the price."

But critics accused campaigners of going too far. Simon Clark of the smokers' rights group FOREST said: "This is just another example of the nanny state gone mad. Many desert islands are already struggling to attract ship-wreck survivors and this proposed legislation will finish them off. And it's unenforceable. This is just the precursor to banning smoking across whole countries."

In response to the accusation that ASH's real goal is to ban smoking indoors and outdoors in every country in the world, Arnott said: "Have you been reading my diary?"

Nicotine Clegg

Josie Appleton at Spiked has been writing about the Spanish who, like the Greeks, are not taking a "comprehensive" smoking ban lying down. Considering the dire economic conditions in both countries, the decision to spend so much time and money hassling smokers seems puzzling. As Josie says, it reflects the warped priorities of the political class:

The smoking ban springs from elite rather than popular concerns. It’s not because the Spanish elite doesn’t like smoking: prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was recently caught smoking on his presidential jet.

Yes, it's another political leader who (whisper it) smokes cigarettes. Another do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do politico to line up alongside Barack Obama and Nick Clegg. Reading the Dubai edition of The Sunday Times yesterday morning as I trailed back to the Sussex Riviera alongside the knackered commuters, I found Nick Clegg's fondness for an occasional tab on the front page. Even if this wasn't already common knowledge (which I thought it was), who cares?

The answer, as Newsnight found when they asked people on the street yesterday, is nobody. But the fact that the media and the political class think that anyone would, should or could be interested rather proves Josie's point about the divide between the norms of the elite and the norms of, er, normal folk.

The elite view is that smoking is finished, denormalised and is now the preserve of a tiny handful of addicts. This fantasy can just about be maintained by people working in the upper echelons of public health. Very few, if any, of their colleagues smoke and it is hard to imagine them consorting with smokers in their spare time. In their neverland of conferencing and seminars, their Walter Mitty fantasies are rarely challenged by the clunking fist of reality.

Such an option is not open to journalists and politicians. Smoking remains very common amongst hacks, and even politicians are sometimes forced to encounter the general public from time to time. For them to believe that the world changed on July 1 2007 requires a level of self-delusion that approaches cognitive dissonance. It is as if by willing society to change, it will do so, even as one's own colleagues, friends and leaders continue to puff away.

And if smoking is imagined to be no longer normal, then it must therefore be remarkable to find that someone is a smoker, right?

Wrong. For all the nudging and denormalising, it is civil society that ultimately decides what is normal behaviour. Outside of the public health bubble, the conduct of a quarter of the population cannot sensibly be viewed deviant, unusual or even interesting. And so it isn't. As has been the case for five centuries, all but a handful of people are profoundly indifferent to smoking. They are also—as it happens—supremely uninterested in whoever is leader of the Liberal Democrats. It should hardly be surprising, then, that the "revelation" that the leader of the Liberal Democrats occasionally smokes was greeted with a jaw-breaking yawn.