de ja vu

From the BBC:

A bid to get the government to take a tougher stance on alcohol advertising in the UK has been given the backing of health experts. Tory backbencher Dr Sarah Wollaston will put forward a private member's bill next week to limit the exposure of children to alcohol marketing.

Dr Wollaston believes a French law known as Loi Evin could be adapted for the UK. The legislation was introduced in 1991 and bans alcohol promotion through mediums such as television and social media, while allowing it elsewhere.

Professor Gerard Hastings, a social marketing expert at Stirling University, told the British Medical Journal the law had helped to reduce alcohol consumption in France. Ram Moorthy, of the BMA's board of science, agreed, urging MPs from all parties to support the bill.

The BMA are supporting this as a means to an end. They don't actually want a ban to protect children, they want a total ban on alcohol advertising. When they called for that 18 months ago the public either ignored or rejected the idea.

Gerard Hastings has form. Over the years he has variously campaigned against smoking, alcohol and fast food advertising. I noticed him in 2009 but his involvement goes back much further than that. Back in 1999 the The Cancer Research Campaign's Centre for Tobacco Control Research, Gerard's employers at the time, aimed to

recruit smokers from across the UK to provide "intelligence" on the tobacco industry

Are there any drinkers who still think that they will not be treated in the same way that smokers have been treated? Really?