Continuing Quotation Tuesday, George Monbiot examines the practices and connections of the British American Tobacco frontman and deputy chairman Kenneth Clarke. As a serving Member of Parliament he was:
health secretary – responsible for reducing the impacts of smoking; home secretary – responsible for upholding the law; and chancellor of the exchequer – responsible for ensuring that Customs and Excise is not cheated of its revenues.
Now he’s in the running to be the new leader of the opposition in the UK, following the Conservative party’s dismal showing in the June 2005 elections. As left-leaning thinkers, his readers may find appeal in his support for the EU, opposition to the war in Iraq, and moderation in political views, but Monbiot warns of ignoring his recent activities for his corporate employers.
Clarke is the obvious antidote to the swivel-eyed ideologues who have run the party for much of the past 30 years. You were doubtless glad to hear that he will declare his candidacy over the next few weeks and that, if he joins forces with David Cameron, he could win.
Let us begin by examining BAT’s contribution to public health. Smoking, according to the World Health Organisation, “is currently responsible for the death of one in 10 adults worldwide … Half the people that smoke today – that is about 650 million people – will eventually be killed by tobacco.” BAT sells one-sixth of the world’s cigarettes. Were responsibility to be divided according to market share, we could accuse it of causing the deaths of 100 million people.
In the rich nations this is a declining problem. In the United States, the number of smokers has fallen to 22% of the adult population – the lowest rate since the second world war. So BAT’s growth relies on poorer nations: Turkey, Iraq, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh,Vietnam and Nigeria. Last year, profits rose by 20%.
But in 2001 the journalists discovered a series of letters which suggested that BAT subsidiaries were organising smuggling operations. One set of papers shows that cigarettes were dispatched to BAT’s agents on the Caribbean island of Aruba, then shipped by BAT’s exclusive distributors to the South American mainland, then smuggled by middlemen into Venezuela and Colombia.
I am not suggesting that Clarke has knowingly engaged in illegal activities or has done anything to offend current criminal law. But it seems to me that in a fair world – a world in which human life was valued by our legislators – he would not now be contemplating the leadership of Her Majesty’s opposition.
He would be behind bars.
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