AS ROAD MAPS go, the Queen鈥檚 Speech at the start of a new Parliament is a
pretty accurate one for the journey ahead. It lays bare the government鈥檚 prime
preoccupations for the next few months, and the lack of any indication of action
on tobacco advertising in last month鈥檚 speech is certain to stir up a packet of
trouble. Upwards of 120,000 people die in Britain each year from smoking-related
diseases. Many MPs are already fuming.
Recently ASH, the campaign for action on smoking and health, wrote to MPs to
bring them up to date with the current state of play surrounding tobacco control
in Britain. Although it sympathised with any new government鈥檚 reluctance to
promise taxes for specific purposes, it said that there is a strong case for
just 1 per cent of tobacco revenue to be used exclusively for the National
Health Service smoking cessation services鈥攁nti-smoking clinics and
prescriptions for aids such as patches. This would give the NHS an extra
拢75 million a year to spend on these services.
I certainly hope that ministers will bring in a measure banning tobacco
advertising as part of what the Queen implied when she told MPs that 鈥渙ther
measures will also be laid before you鈥�.
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I AM delighted following the recent reshuffle that Michael Meacher is to
remain in the same slot鈥攁s environment minister鈥攂ut in the newly
formed Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. There is now a chance
that there will be no hiccups in the progress of a policy on soil strategy.
Robert Evans, a soil erosion scientist at Anglia Polytechnic University,
Cambridge, recently showed me his response to the consultation paper, The
Draft Soil Strategy for England
(快猫短视频, 7 April, p 51).
Evans says that we need to identify, assess and react to pressures on soils, and
not just those that affect it directly, such as pollution. We also need to
assess the economic factors that indirectly threaten it, such as the Common
Agricultural Policy, and the need for cheap food and the construction of more
houses, industrial buildings and roads.
Evans goes on to say that a research programme should be a part of the
strategy and should be designed not only to solve problems, such as the clean-up
of contaminated land, but also improve our understanding of the interactions
between soil structure type, cultivation and climate change.
Following the recent positive attitude of the former Department of the
Environment, Transport and the Regions
(23 June, p 53),
I am hopeful that good news will soon follow and Britain will have a clear soil policy.
THE fate of major reports published during a general election is not a happy
one鈥攖hat is, if the topic is fairly far down in the political in-tray.
It鈥檚 vital, then, that the recent Royal Society report on the pros and cons of
genetically modifying animals should not be allowed to gather dust
(快猫短视频, 26 May, p 3).
The report describes the current medical and agricultural applications of
genetically modified animals. Arguments about these issues should, at the very
least, be informed by an understanding of the science that underpins them.
The Royal Society highlights two major recommendations for the people
developing policy to implement regulations passed by politicians. They should
ensure that the production of GM animals is restricted to species with no local
population and that there is no chance that they can escape and establish
themselves in the wild.