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Doug’s New Year Message

Doug Naysmith MP’s Letter from Westminster for the Observer, North Bristol and South Gloucestershire Editions

New Year is a time for resolutions so I am sure that many people will be promising themselves to give up smoking or follow a healthier diet (or both). Having done both in my time, I know how hard it is and so, in 2005, I shall be supporting the Government’s plans to give people a helping hand. A lot of nonsense is talked about the Nanny State but Governments should take people’s health seriously and do what they can to improve it through education and sensible laws. It isn’t ‘nannyish’ to stop people damaging the health of others or imposing an intolerable degree of inconvenience or nuisance on them.

Restricting smoking in public places and at work will help those who do not want to breathe other people’s smoke, but it will also help those who want to give up. I’ll also support further restrictions on tobacco advertising, tougher action on tobacco smuggling and on shops that sell cigarettes to children. Most important, I believe, is improving the health of our children, so I will support curbs on the promotion of unhealthy foods to children and a simple code so that people can see how much salt, fat and sugar there is in processed food. Together with the plans for more PE in schools, these proposals should help the next generation to be healthier than their parents.

The relationship between poverty and ill-health is well known and it’s easier to be healthy if you have a healthy bank balance. I look forward, therefore, to Government measures to tackle social and geographical inequalities in health. Lastly, after talking so much about health, it only remains to wish everyone in Bristol Northwest and beyond a healthy and happy 2005.