There is no Big Tobacco Conspiracy

I wrote on 6 July opposing the 25% tax increase on tobacco products. I declared that if the tax was not removed by 31 July I would consider myself at war with the government. I invited smokers to join me and use their vote as a weapon.

The deadline has passed. I am at war. There is good news and bad news, depending on your point of view.

In the past month I have written to two of the three tobacco companies urging them to back me as an independent candidate for the Senate. I suggested to them that the best way to fight a law is to elect your own friendly lawmaker.

I put myself up on several blog and social networking sites calling for support and donations. Conspiracy theorists take note and take heart – my blogs and social networking profiles did not go viral. They yielded not one comment or email and not a single dollar in donations. The tobacco companies did not respond to my letters.

The deadline to nominate for the Senate passed on Thursday. I will not be a candidate.

It’s a great disappointment to me. I would have enjoyed going to the Senate. I would have spent my first day making trouble daring anyone to “lay hands” on me, an elected lawmaker, trying to stop me smoking in my own office. Of course I would not have discriminated against non-smokers when hiring personal staff.

While respecting the Senate and its protocols I would have been ruthless in trading my vote with any ratbag to further my obsession. The 25% tax must be repealed, I would have repeated endlessly as Cato, in the Roman Senate more than two thousand years ago, repeated Carthage must be destroyed. If you don’t get the reference, Google it. Carthage was destroyed. One man with an obsession can stare down a government.

I am not a candidate at this election. To quote an Italian proverb, not all bad things happen to our detriment. One issue motivates me but I am looking with sympathy at others. Aspartame, the deadly and dirty secret of soft drink manufacturers, is a major cause of many health disorders. Yet the government does nothing about aspartame.

Obesity is now officially our biggest public health problem. Nobody has a clue what to do about it. Why are people looking at pictures of slim and gorgeous celebrities in magazines and getting fat themselves? Oh, I think I can see a clue.

There are many important health issues. Give people information and let them choose how they live and take their pleasure.

Carthage must be destroyed.