It was Milosevic’s fault, says the man charged with orchestrating the biggest massacre in Europe since the last world war Ratko Mladic delivered a tirade of abuse against officials involved in his capture when he was first brought to court, the Observer has learned. He accused them of “working for the CIA” and later remarked chillingly to one prominent official that he could have had him killed on two occasions. Mladic, who has refused to recognise the authority of the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, where he is expected to be extradited to this week on charges of genocide, also denied being a killer, adding that all Serbs bore a shared guilt for voting for President Slobodan Milosevic, architect of the Balkan wars. How Mladic has behaved since being brought to a Belgrade court was disclosed in the most detailed account yet of the state of mind of the man charged with orchestrating the Srebrenica massacre and the siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian war. It came as a source close to Serbia’s intelligence service, the BIA – or Security Information Agency – said Mladic had been living openly, although “not continuously”, in the village of Lazarevo, where he was found, for several years. A BIA team observing the house of Branko Mladic, where Ratko Mladic was found, in one of two addresses he had been using in the area, had watched him going about “everyday activities” including helping his cousin Branko on the farm and attending village celebrations. “Personally speaking,” said the source, “I think some officials knew where he was living. It was peculiar, too, that when the house was raided that there were no personal possessions there.” Mladic’s behaviour since capture was described by Bruno Vekaric, a deputy prosecutor at the War Crimes Prosecutor’s Office, who has met Mladic twice since his arrest in Lazarevo on Thursday. “He was really angry at first. He recognised me from television and said: ‘You’re in the CIA!’ He knew my name and asked me: ‘Are you a Serb?’ You know, because it is not a common Serbian name. I told him my father was from Dubrovnik [in Croatia]. He felt like a great Serb and was angry at the way he was being treated on that first day.” Vekaric added that examination of Mladic by court-appointed medical experts confirmed that he had suffered at least two minor strokes, perhaps more, but was coherent and fit to stand trial. That was confirmed by his wife, Bosiljka, speaking after visiting Mladic, who said he had suffered a stroke in 2008. “He was stubborn and resistant. He did not want to co-operate with the judge at all on the first day,” said Vekaric. “He spoke about his career. And what was interesting – on that first day – was that he said to me: ‘Bruno, I am not a killer. But the people who killed, they should be held responsible’.” Vekaric gave his account in his court office above the cells where Mladic is being held in a block on his own, watched 24 hours by two guards through an open door. He described a vivid psychological profile of the man who spent 16 years on the run. “He’s always observed,” said Vekaric, “but he’s told the guards: ‘You don’t have to worry. I’m not going to commit suicide’.” Mladic emerges from the account as a man who has a desperate need to explain himself. “He needs to speak. To communicate,” said Vekaric. “He was alone for so long he needs to speak.” Although they had never met before, Mladic made clear to Vekaric that he had followed his statements over the years on television. “The first day he was very tired. He was stressed and aggressive. The second time I saw him in court he apologised to me for his outburst.” What has been visible since then is a more familiar Mladic, arrogant and demanding, insisting not only on his own innocence but on the shared guilt of all of the Serbian people. “He said: ‘You elected [Slobodan] Milosevic, not me. You are all guilty, not me’.” During his time in court, speaking to officials on the margins of the proceedings to extradite him to The Hague for trial, some details have emerged of how Mladic has lived. He has had no mobile phone – not trusting it or the internet. The television channels that he watched were local Serbian ones, describing cable television as “fed by the CIA”. Mladic has delivered recriminations, too, over how his family has been treated during the long manhunt. “He asked for his pension [cut off in 2004] to be reinstated. He said: ‘You destroyed everything. Because of you my daughter-in-law lost her job. They destroyed the financial connections of my son Darko’,” Vekaric said. He added that as well as asking for strawberries and a television, which has been delivered to his cell, Mladic had asked to visit the grave of his daughter, Anna, who committed suicide in 1994, and had also asked if he could see his grandchildren. Vekaric added that Mladic had suffered increasingly straitened circumstances since 2006 – when he narrowly evaded arrest in the village of Ljuba. This was as a result of the targeting of those in his support network, including financiers, and increased supervision of family members, who had been followed closely by the BIA. “He only had relatives who could look after him,” said the source familiar with the BIA operation to capture him. “None of his close family visited him in Lazarevo while the house was being observed. They were being watched too closely.” “When you see him,” said Vekaric, “you see a man who was not looked after himself well in the last three to four years. He looks like someone who has not had proper medical attention in a long time.” Ratko Mladic War crimes Bosnia and Herzegovina Serbia Slobodan Milosevic trial Peter Beaumont guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …This can’t be good: Hackers breached the security networks of top US defense contractors, reports Reuters . The story has no details on what, if anything, the hackers got, and points out that any highly classified work would likely be out of reach on a closed government network. But it’s possible…
Continue reading …Fresh off her epic spat with Donald Trump, Gail Collins today turns her pen on “the latest Republican Party crush,” Rick Perry. The Texas governor is, “in his own words,” writes Collins in the New York Times , “’the kind of guy who goes jogging packing a Ruger .380 with laser…
Continue reading …Cancer patients denied last wish to die at home because of shortage of nurses
May 28, 2011 No Comment
70,000 cancer patients in England and Wales die in a hospital bed every year, despite wanting to be at home Tens of thousands of cancer patients are dying in hospital, despite wishing to end their lives at home, because of a “shameful” lack of NHS nurses, campaigners say. Only 56% of primary care trusts (PCTs) in England offer around-the-clock community nursing care, which helps those approaching the end of their lives remain among family and friends. Macmillan Cancer Support has found that 73% of the 157,000 cancer patients who die every year in England and Wales would prefer to spend their last days at home. But data from the Office of National Statistics shows that 51% of these patients (80,070) die in hospital and another 17% (26,690) in a hospice, with only 27% (42,390) dying in their own surroundings. Care homes account for the remaining 5%. The mismatch between patients’ wishes and their eventual place of death affects 72,220 people. Some of those who die in hospital do so because their illness means that they cannot remain at home, but campaigners say that many or most of them could have ended their days there with loved ones if there was sufficient nursing support. “It is a tragedy that, each year, tens of thousands of cancer patients are not able to get their dying wish – to die in their own home, surrounded by their loved ones – because they do not have the support they need. We know that with the right support, 73% of cancer patients would prefer to die at home, but only 27% actually do,” said Mike Hobday, Macmillan’s head of policy. “It also costs the NHS more money to have them in hospital, where they don’t want to be, showing how badly needed around-the-clock community nursing is. Twenty-four/seven nursing care can significantly reduce emergency admissions and allow patients the end-of-life care that they want, yet it is only available in just over half of England’s PCTs.” Conservative MP John Baron, the chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on cancer, said: “It is shameful that so many people with cancer cannot die where they wish – in their own homes – because of a lack of community nursing provision. Those areas that currently do not provide out-of-hours community nursing should make plans to address this issue.” Their calls for action came as research revealed how much time many cancer patients spend in hospital as they near the end of their life. The study, in the European Journal of Cancer , found that in 2006 in England, 58% of 147,000 people with the disease in the last year of their lives had been admitted to hospital during that time, and 25% had spent more than 10% of their time as an inpatient. “This research shows that a considerable number of cancer patients are spending significant amounts of time in hospital in the last year of life, despite many patients telling us that they want to die at home” said Ciarán Devane, the chief executive of Macmillan. “It is wrong to deny people the choice about where they die.” Health minister Paul Burstow accepted that existing provision was inadequate. “People deserve care at the end of life that is compassionate and gives them the choice over where they die and how they are cared for. Progress is being made in improving end-of-life care, but I know more needs to be done. We want to make sure everyone gets the highest quality of care, in the place of their choice,” he said. More is being done to improve training, promote best practice and ensure that proper end-of-life care exists across NHS and social care services, he added. “The government believes that people should be given a choice about where they receive end-of-life care. I am determined to increase the pace of change to make this choice a reality,” he said. Joe Levenson of the National Council for Palliative Care said: “Every minute someone dies in the UK, but many people each year, including tens of thousands with cancer, are still not receiving the type of end-of-life care they want and need. Much more needs to be done to improve access to 24/7 palliative care, including in people’s own homes, where so many people would prefer to die.” Sue Brooks, a retired health and safety officer in Berkshire, lost her husband, David, to cancer. She has called for better round-the-clock NHS nursing care so that terminally ill people can die at home: “David was diagnosed with lung cancer in July 2005 and by that December he was very, very ill. We agreed with the doctor that he would spend some time in a hospice to give me a break and let me get out and buy Christmas presents for our three children. But by the time he was ready to come home, he was too sick to be moved. “The hospice was wonderful, and I was with him when he died. But we weren’t at home, and he strongly wanted to die at home. He had even drawn a sketch of how he wanted the room at home to look when he died. “If we’d been able to get 24/7 nursing cover, maybe he wouldn’t have had to go into the hospice at all. Sadly, it’s a postcode lottery as to who gets that. But that’s actually costing the NHS more money, as it’s cheaper to nurse someone at home than keep them in hospital. “Most terminally ill people want to die at home, but the majority don’t get the chance. Do you not deserve some respect at that time of your life, when you have given everything? It’s a tragedy that people who are sick and know they are dying can’t have their very last wish.” Cancer NHS Nursing Health Denis Campbell guardian.co.uk
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Post-revolution move is hailed as ‘first step towards breaking the siege’, but Israel voices concerns Egypt has opened its border with Gaza, letting Palestinians leave the blockaded territory, in a move seen as indicating a more supportive policy since February’s revolution. Hundreds of people laden with luggage gathered at the Rafah crossing in the south of Gaza before the border opened at 9am. Around 300 crossed in the first hours and officials said they expected up to 1,000 to leave Gaza by the end of the day. Women, children and men over the age of 40 will be permitted free travel from Gaza to Egypt, but men under 40 will be required to apply for and be granted a visa. A large proportion of Gaza’s 1.5 million population is aged between 18 and 40. The crossing will open for eight hours a day, six days a week. In the four years since Hamas took control of Gaza, 18 months after winning elections, and Israel imposed a stringent blockade, the Rafah border has opened intermittently and only students, businessmen and people needing medical treatment have been allowed through. All other border crossings are with Israel, which has tightly controlled the movement of people and goods. Despite easing the blockade almost a year ago, Israel continues to proscribe certain goods, such as construction materials, from entering Gaza and blocks nearly all exports. Rafah will not be open to commercial traffic. Israel’s government has expressed concern that the reopening of the border will lead to the shipment of weapons and militants into Gaza and is also alarmed at the prospect of closer ties between the new Egyptian government and Gaza. Former president Hosni Mubarak, who was forced out in February’s revolution, was seen as an ally of Israel. The new government last month brokered a reconciliation deal between rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas, including an agreement to open the border. “People are happy Rafah is open, they say it’s the first step towards breaking the siege of Gaza,” said local journalist Hazem Balousha. “They see it as a result of the Egyptian revolution and reconciliation.” Ghazi Hamed, the Hamas official who oversees the border from the Gaza side, said he hoped that 1,000 people would be able to cross each day. “We will co-operate with the Egyptian brothers to make sure the new arrangements get implemented smoothly and accurately,” he said. The numbers wanting to cross the border is expected to rise when the school year ends in around two weeks. Gaza Egypt Israel Hamas Fatah Middle East Harriet Sherwood guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Bradley Manning never should have been let near Iraq, much less the classified trove he spilled to WikiLeaks, reports the Guardian in a look at the Army private’s mental health. “He was harassed so much that he once pissed in his sweatpants,” says an anonymous officer from the base where…
Continue reading …Tobacco giant BAT admits funding retailers’ campaign against ban on cigarette displays
May 28, 2011 No Comment
Tobacco giant financed retail association’s high-profile campaign against a government ban on cigarette displays in shops One of the world’s largest tobacco companies has admitted funding a retail association’s high-profile campaign against a government ban on cigarette displays in shops The National Federation of Retail Newsagents claimed the ban , approved by the government earlier this year, would put thousands of small shopkeepers out of business. But it has now emerged that the federation’s campaign received funding from British American Tobacco (BAT) whose lobbying firm, Hume Brophy, emailed MPs claiming the ban would have a “devastating effect on the small business sector in your constituency”. More than 80 MPs backed the federation’s campaign – and smaller shops were exempted from the ban on behind-the-counter displays for 18 months, which was a significant victory. In a letter to Labour MP Kevin Barron, BAT confirmed: “We have provided financial assistance to the NFRN in relation to this campaign.” It also confirmed that Hume Brophy had attended meetings between BAT and the federation in which the campaign was discussed. However, BAT denied it used “underhand tactics” or that the federation was a front for the company. The revelation that the campaign was funded by BAT is significant. Under international guidelines, the UK government is obliged to ensure the drafting of all legislation is free from tobacco industry influence. Now, the fact some MPs may have been unaware the campaign was backed by tobacco money has angered anti-smoking groups. Lib Dem MP Stephen Williams has written to Hume Brophy, asking it to inform MPs of its links with BAT. The issue of tobacco funding is likely to trigger fierce debate at the federation’s annual conference next week. Some of its 16,500 members have concerns over its links to the tobacco industry. Solly Khonat, president of the federation in 2009, is a spokesman for the Tobacco Retailers Alliance, a trade body wholly funded by the Tobacco Manufacturers’ Association. Several alliance officials are members of the federation. Colin Finch, a former president of the federation, told the Observer this year that the federation was a “puppet of the tobacco industry”. BAT’s admission has prompted Barron to write to the health secretary, Andrew Lansley, warning the government’s commitment to tobacco control “is being undermined by covert lobbying by the tobacco industry”. He expressed concerns the tobacco lobby would adopt similar tactics as part of a campaign against plans for cigarettes to be sold in plain packs. A spokeswoman for the federation insisted it had been “very transparent about the commercial relationship that it shares with tobacco manufacturers” and that its campaign had been waged solely in the interests of its members and had not been influenced by the tobacco lobby. Deborah Arnott, chief executive of the anti-smoking group Ash, said the battle lines were now being drawn between politicians and the tobacco firms as details of how they were funding third parties started to emerge. “The UK has committed in principle to protecting public health policy from the tobacco industry,” Arnott said. “The government must prove that it can turn principles into practice when it launches its consultation on plain packaging later this year.” British American Tobacco Tobacco industry Retail industry Smoking Health policy Jamie Doward guardian.co.uk
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Government and social services departments are accused of failing to protect victims Hundreds of children who have been trafficked into the UK are disappearing each year from the care system, amid allegations that government and local authorities are failing to protect them. The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, a government agency, estimates that at least 300 juveniles identified as trafficked have disappeared from local authority care over the past three years. Collated figures from the NSPCC yesterday showed they had dealt with 549 trafficked children in the past three-and-a-half years, although there was no indication of how many had since disappeared after being delivered into care. Charities have urged the government to adopt a scheme successfully piloted in Scotland, in which guardians are appointed to act as advocates and points of contact for all children believed to have been trafficked. The government has so far rejected proposals to extend the scheme to England. “Guardianship is an essential cost-effective way to prevent children from going missing from care,” said Christine Beddoe, director of child protection charity Ecpat UK. “It would ensure that victims of child trafficking now in care have access to the safe housing, education and legal support which would prevent them slipping back into the hands of their exploiters.” A policy document by the Conservatives in 2008 estimated that “over half of trafficked children disappear from social services”. The document also criticised the absence of “safe accommodation” providing 24-hour care for trafficked children. But concern is growing that the party has little appetite to tackle the issue now it is in power. Home Office sources have suggested that a forthcoming strategy paper on human trafficking is unlikely to include a specific section on child trafficking, an omission that will infuriate campaigners. “We have worked tirelessly with government officials over the past five years to develop a national action plan and a robust protection framework for child victims of trafficking,” said Beddoe. “To see this washed away almost overnight is a scandal. It’s as if the Home Office have shredded all the facts and figures.” The government has a statutory duty to provide care to children regardless of nationality or immigration status. New figures released by the children’s charity NSPCC show that during the year to April its child trafficking helpline dealt with 146 cases alone, although experts say this is merely a fragment of the true picture. Scotland Yard will launch a freephone trafficking hotline to encourage victims to come forward in response to concern that the scale of the crime remains largely unknown. Detective Inspector Gordon Valentine, the former head of Operation Paladin, Scotland Yard’s specialist anti child-trafficking team of police and UK Border Agency officials, said yesterday that the issue did not seem to be a priority for policymakers. Valentine, who retired on Friday, said that although the Yard had made progress in identifying child victims, there was a concern that the team – which has just five officials – needed to be expanded if traffickers were to be dissuaded from targeting the UK. He added: “Paladin has been a real success and should be expanded, but one issue is that it sits between two stools, the UK Border Agency and the police, and there is an issue about who’s going to drive it. The Met are fully committed to Paladin: it’s just [a matter of] convincing the wider authorities. Logically, [tackling child trafficking] is cost-effective, but because you can’t put costings to it, it’s difficult to sell [to policymakers].” Anne Marie Carrie, Barnardo’s chief executive said: “It is imperative that we identify these children quickly and accurately. Failure to do so means they are left without the help and support they so urgently need.” Anthony Steen, former Conservative MP and head of the UK’s Human Trafficking Foundation, said: “Child trafficking remains unseen and children don’t complain or answer back.” The Home Office said it took the issue extremely seriously and that it remained “core” police business. Child protection Crime Children Social care Mark Townsend guardian.co.uk
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• British military personnel run courses for snipers • Human rights groups furious over Riyadh link Britain is training Saudi Arabia’s national guard – the elite security force deployed during the recent protests in Bahrain – in public order enforcement measures and the use of sniper rifles. The revelation has outraged human rights groups, which point out that the Foreign Office recognises that the kingdom’s human rights record is “a major concern”. In response to questions made under the Freedom of Information Act, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed that British personnel regularly run courses for the national guard in “weapons, fieldcraft and general military skills training, as well as incident handling, bomb disposal, search, public order and sniper training”. The courses are organised through the British Military Mission to the Saudi Arabian National Guard, an obscure unit that consists of 11 British army personnel under the command of a brigadier. The MoD response, obtained yesterday by the Observer , reveals that Britain sends up to 20 training teams to the kingdom a year. Saudi Arabia pays for “all BMM personnel, as well as support costs such as accommodation and transport”. Bahrain’s royal family used 1,200 Saudi troops to help put down demonstrations in March. At the time the British government said it was “deeply concerned” about reports of human rights abuses being perpetrated by the troops. “Britain’s important role in training the Saudi Arabian national guard in internal security over many years has enabled them to develop tactics to help suppress the popular uprising in Bahrain,” said Nicholas Gilby of the Campaign Against Arms Trade. Analysts believe the Saudi royal family is desperate to shore up its position in the region by preserving existing regimes in the Gulf that will help check the increasing power of Iran. “Last year we raised concerns that the Saudis had been using UK-supplied and UK-maintained arms in secret attacks in Yemen that left scores of Yemeni civilians dead,” said Oliver Sprague, director of Amnesty International’s UK Arms Programme. Defence minister Nick Harvey confirmed to parliament last week that the UK’s armed forces provided training to the Saudi national guard. “It is possible that some members of the Saudi Arabian national guard which were deployed in Bahrain may have undertaken some training provided by the British military mission,” he said. The confirmation that this training is focused on maintaining public order in the kingdom is potentially embarrassing for the government. Coming at the end of a week in which the G8 summit in France approved funding for countries embracing democracy in the wake of the Arab spring, it has led to accusations that the government’s foreign policy is at conflict with itself. Jonathan Edwards, a Plaid Cymru MP who has tabled parliamentary questions to the MoD about its links to Saudi Arabia, said he found it difficult to understand why Britain was training troops for “repressive undemocratic regimes”. “This is the shocking face of our democracy to many people in the world, as we prop up regimes of this sort,” Edwards said. “It is intensely hypocritical of our leadership in the UK – Labour or Conservative – to talk of supporting freedoms in the Middle East and elsewhere while at the same time training crack troops of dictatorships.” The MoD’s response was made in 2006, but when questioned this week it confirmed Britain has been providing training for the Saudi national guard to improve their “internal security and counter-terrorism” capabilities since 1964 and continues to do so. Members of the guard, which was established by the kingdom’s royal family because it feared its regular army would not support it in the event of a popular uprising, are also provided places on flagship UK military courses at Sandhurst and Dartmouth. In Saudi Arabia, Britain continues to train the guard in “urban sharpshooter” programmes, the MoD confirmed. Last year, Britain approved 163 export licences for military equipment to Saudi Arabia, worth £110m. Exports included armoured personnel carriers, sniper rifles, small arms ammunition and weapon sights. In 2009, the UK supplied Saudi Arabia with CS hand grenades, teargas and riot control agents. Sprague said a shake-up of the system licensing the supply of military expertise and weapons to foreign governments was overdue. “We need a far more rigorous case-by-case examination of the human rights records of those who want to buy our equipment or receive training.” An MoD spokesman described the Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, as “key partners” in the fight against terrorism. “By providing training for countries to the same high standards used by UK armed forces we help to save lives and raise awareness of human rights,” said the spokesman. Labour MP Mike Gapes, the former chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, said British military support for Saudi Arabia was about achieving a “difficult balance”. “On the one hand Saudi Arabia faces the threat of al-Qaida but on the other its human rights record is dreadful. This is the constant dilemma you have when dealing with autocratic regimes: do you ignore them or try to improve them?” Saudi Arabia Bahrain Arab and Middle East unrest Military Middle East Human rights Jamie Doward guardian.co.uk
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Health secretary attacked after calls to smoking, drugs and lifestyle helplines plunged following spending freeze The health secretary, Andrew Lansley, has been forced into a major U-turn on funding for public health campaigns, after evidence emerged that the spending freeze had cost lives. An extra £15m has now been set aside for promoting the government’s anti-smoking website and £14m will be made available for a campaign promoting healthy living. The decision has come in response to a damning Department of Health (DoH) report on the consequences of the government’s decision to “all but cease” publicly-funded advertising last year. The DoH found that the number of people ringing the drug abuse support helpline, Frank, had fallen by 22%, that visits to the Smokefree website had fallen by 50% and that the number of people joining the government’s lifestyle website was down by two-thirds. Most worryingly, the report said, there was evidence that “the cessation of marketing activity [had] resulted in declining quit attempts, and subsequent loss of life from smoking-related illness”. It added: “Following the coalition government’s freeze on non-essential marketing expenditure, all social marketing programmes were reduced and expenditure on advertising all but ceased. “We have now had the opportunity to learn from the freeze and to assess where the loss of mass communications had a negative impact… We now recommend that some advertising, and other forms of mass communication such as sponsorship, paid media partnerships and PR, be resumed.” The revelation follows savage criticism of the DoH decision last year to axe the £1.5m awareness campaign for flu vaccinations. Figures released this month showed there had been a rise in deaths from 474 in 2009/10 to 535 in 2010/11 and that a disproportionate number had been among the young. Lansley justified the freeze on marketing spending last year as a departure from the “lecturing” attitude, which he said characterised some previous government’s interventions. But shadow health secretary John Healey said Lansley needed to publicly apologise for his mistakes: “Mass publicity must play a part in good public health. This report shows that Andrew Lansley made the wrong judgment in axing anti-smoking promotions, just like he did on the flu-jab adverts last autumn. “The health secretary needs to tell people that he’s learnt the lessons and won’t make the same mistake again.” Key evidence for the loss of life caused by the government’s policy was provided in a submission to the all-party parliamentary group on smoking and health by Professor Robert West, director of Tobacco Studies at Cancer Research UK. West told the group: “Evidence shows that total spending on government mass media campaigns in a given quarter is associated with smoking cessation activity in that quarter. If, as seems likely, this association is causal, the recent suspension of mass media campaigns will lead to significant loss of life, and with every month that passes without further activity the death toll will grow.” West told the Observer that the most recent figures on giving up smoking confirmed his fears: “For smoking, most of the population are in a state of motivational tension, they are a bit dissonant about it and what the marketing does is tip them over the edge into activity. So if you stop doing that they carry on being dissonant. “We looked at a number of objectives – markers of cessation activity, attendance at clinics, hits on the website and the quit line – and the correlation is very striking. The association between marketing activity and spend was very strong. “It [lack of marketing] will have cost lives. For every year that someone over the age of 35 carries on smoking they lose three months of life expectancy. So if you just lose a year of significant activity you have already lost lives. That is the inescapable logic of it.” Research by the DoH suggests smokers’ motivation to quit is in decline, with the number of people saying they do not want to quit at all at 30%, its highest level since tracking began in 2007. Over recent years, there has also been a year-on-year decline in people trying to stop smoking, from 43.5% in 2007 to 35.8% in 2010. On top of the spending on anti-smoking and the healthier living campaign, Change4Life, a further £4m will be spent on marketing targeted at young people, and £11m on advertising issues related to older people. Professor Geof Rayner, an adviser to the Change4Life programme, said he was delighted: “I am pleased the civil service has put this in front of the politicians and that the politicians have seen some sense. They should be pragmatic, not ideological, about public health.” However, the total spending is still less than half the £93m spent by the Labour government in 2009/2010. A DoH spokesman denied the decision to start spending again was a U-turn but claimed that the freeze had been an opportunity to test the efficacy of previous spending. “Our campaigns have a high impact,” he added. “A study found that two-thirds of the public think advertising is vital to the success of government campaigns.” Health policy Andrew Lansley Health & wellbeing Smoking Drugs policy Daniel Boffey guardian.co.uk
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