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Title : The Global Alcohol Policy Conference 2017
link : The Global Alcohol Policy Conference 2017
The Global Alcohol Policy Conference 2017
The Global Alcohol Policy Alliance (GAPA) has been having its conference in Australia this week. You may recall that GAPA is the latest incarnation of the gospel temperance movement which has found a way to gorge itself on taxpayers' money by integrating with the 'public health' racket.One advantage of being a 'policy alliance' is that you don't have to pretend your conference is about science. Instead you can focus on political activism, which is what most of the academics in the field are really interested in anyway. Sessions at this year's event include...
Advocating for change: the role of community polling
Skilling Youth as Alcohol Advocates Against Alcohol Advertising and Marketing in Botswana
How to defend alcohol taxes: an economic perspective
Alcohol campaigning in the UK: Ten years of ups and downs
Mobilising alliances to advocate for meaningful progress on alcohol and NCDs
'There’s a War On’ winning the battle for hearts and minds
Advocating for effective alcohol marketing regulation via an alternative complaint review process
Monitoring and Exposing Innovative tool to reveal Big Alcohol tactics
Building support for change: the benefits of a national NCD alliance
Advocacy Campaigns for Alcohol Free Portfolios: Norway as a case study
Lessons from 20 years of tobacco control: The FCTC and Bloomberg Initiative
Public Health’s role in Licensing: equipping Public Health to be advocates
If you look at the conference programme you will see that this is just the tip of the iceberg. There is a vast number of sessions and a huge number of speakers from around the world, including our very own Colin Shevills (from the Balance Northeast sockpuppet), Katherine Brown (UK Temperance Alliance masquerading as the Institute of Alcohol Studies), John Holmes (University of Sheffield) and Ian Gilmore (Alcohol Health Alliance). You won't be surprised to hear that none of the sessions appear to discuss any social, economic or health benefits associated with alcohol.
Fair enough, you might say. It is a temperance conference, after all. But two things stick in the craw about this jamboree.
Firstly, that taxpayers are being forced to pay for it. When GAPA came to Scotland in 2015, it was the taxpayer who footed the bill thanks to sponsorship by the NHS and Scottish Government. Nicola Sturgeon gave a keynote speech and the organisers paid tribute to her 'political courage'. It is difficult to find the words to describe this nauseating, tax-sponging echo chamber.
This year, the sponsors include the Australian Department of Health, the Alcohol and Drug Foundation, NOFASD, the Public Health Association of Australia and the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE), all of which are funded by the Australian taxpayer. For example, FARE was set up by the government with a $115 million grant (!) and spends 50% of its income on 'policy and advocacy', 15% on 'leading change', 6% on 'defending the public interest' and 5% on 'working together'. In other words, it is a state-funded political pressure group.
Other sponsors include the World Health Organisation (taxpayer funded), SHORE (funded by the WHO) and the International Order of Good Templars (funded by the EU). In fact, I can see only one sponsor that probably isn't funded by the state in some way.
It's bad enough that ordinary people have to pay for these fanatics to jet around the world campaigning to make our lives worse. What makes it almost unbearable - and this is the second thing that sticks in the craw - is the delusional vanity of the delegates. For instance, here is Alison Douglas portraying herself as a brave and beleaguered individual fighting The Man.
Who is Alison Douglas? She is the CEO of Alcohol Focus Scotland.
What is Alcohol Focus Scotland? It is a pressure group that gets most of its income from the Scottish government (£472,000 last year).
What is the Scottish government's stance on minimum pricing? It is massively in favour of it. Here is the first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, addressing the Global Alcohol Policy Conference earlier this week, explicitly encouraging her paid sockpuppets to keep up the good work.
In what perverse parallel universe are underdogs funded and supported by a government that agrees with them? Douglas has been flown out to Australia at the expense of either the British taxpayer or the Australian taxpayer to present herself as some sort of citizen activist. It's a farce. It is ludicrous for these people to present them as anti-establishment. They are the establishment, the First Minister is their client and the temperance shindig she is speaking at is, to all intents and purposes, a government conference.
And so I ask - not for the first time - why are we being forced to pay for these headbangers to discuss how best to lobby their employers?
You can catch up with what the loonies have been talking about by following the #GAPC17 hashtag on Twitter. The tweets - like the conference - seem to have become more extreme since the last one in 2015. The majority of them are about how evil 'Big Alcohol' is. The rest are just deranged. Here is a sample...
Neoliberalism, hyperconsumption, instant gratification empowers alcohol industry - difficult environment for healthy policies #GAPC2017— Alcohol Healthwatch (@AlcHealthwatch) October 6, 2017
We need to empower those women who want to make change - we need to counter the industry obvious and disgusting tactics #gapc2017 http://pic.twitter.com/H8b5KOELmd— Amy Ferguson ๐ (@AmyPFerg) October 6, 2017
.@ARobM on what we need to do to counter unhealthy industry tactics #GAPC2017 http://pic.twitter.com/W8lF1edjjQ— FARE (@FAREAustralia) October 5, 2017
If you want to see how Big Alcohol mimics tobacco-style tactics follow excellent speakers at #GAPC2017. I worked in field for several years.— Michele Simon JD MPH (@MicheleRSimon) October 6, 2017
White men poison developing countries first with tobacco and now alcohol #GAPC2017 http://pic.twitter.com/FM2gI2RWez— Diana E-Warburton๐ (@First_do_noharm) October 5, 2017
Vinnie Demarco speaking at #GAPC2017 about his approach to advocacy- noisy American. Great stuff! @FAREAustralia @HealthyMaryland http://pic.twitter.com/Ialit5zI9M— Michael Thorn (@MichaelTThorn) October 6, 2017
Rebecca Perl @VitalStrat on lessons from #tobacco:— Lucy Westerman (@lewest) October 5, 2017
it's looks bleak, but it did w tobacco, & now tobacco shows:
"it can be done" #GAPC2017 http://pic.twitter.com/sUsLfBQTSx
When governments do regulate alcohol marketing they don't address user generated content #GAPC2017— Alcohol Healthwatch (@AlcHealthwatch) October 5, 2017
Three headed dragon of TTP, TTIP & TiSA-is it still the elephant in the room asks Prof Jane Kelsey @UniAuckland #GAPC2017 @FAREAustralia http://pic.twitter.com/VcZCWKbU1M— Melissa Stoneham (@DrMelStoneham) October 5, 2017
David Jernigan reminds us as public health academics and policy practitioners that we have an important role! #gapc2017 http://pic.twitter.com/WDH6dyJrNZ— Amy Ferguson ๐ (@AmyPFerg) October 5, 2017
Kypros Kypri #GAPC2017 on the commercial determinants of health, sugar alcohol, tobacco and gambling http://pic.twitter.com/BoLEe4rOnM— Diana E-Warburton๐ (@First_do_noharm) October 5, 2017
Battling the alcohol industry at #GAPC2017 http://pic.twitter.com/HQyCQ15IYF— Michael Barclay (@mabarclay11) October 5, 2017
#GAPC2017 Data showing alcohol taxes can reduce sexually transmitted diseases— Kate Conigrave (@KConigrave) October 5, 2017
Public health needs to be careful around individual responsibility in discourse - Nicki Jackson @ACTIONonALCOHOL #GAPC2017— ACTIONonALCOHOL (@ACTIONonALCOHOL) October 5, 2017
Nicki Jackson says we need to ensure our public education campaigns & programs do not reinforce the individual responsibility msg #gapc2017— Amy Ferguson ๐ (@AmyPFerg) October 5, 2017
Presenters at #GAPC2017 drawing attention to #BigAlcohol adopting the tactics of fellow merchants of death & doubt #BigTobacco— Alcohol Healthwatch (@AlcHealthwatch) October 5, 2017
The challenge from the alcohol industry is constant and we must be forever vigilant - @June_Oscar #GAPC2017— Amy Ferguson ๐ (@AmyPFerg) October 5, 2017
In NZ, Ministers want to get re-elected, so there's no brave & bold leadership taking on effective alcohol policy @AlcHealthwatch #GAPC2017 http://pic.twitter.com/yoMivgVLm4— Lucy Westerman (@lewest) October 5, 2017
Good alcohol policy makes the market as inefficient as possible at selling ethanol. - Timothy Stockwell #GAPC2017 @ACTIONonALCOHOL— ACTIONonALCOHOL (@ACTIONonALCOHOL) October 5, 2017
Good alcohol policy DISRUPTS, DISTORTS, and RESTRICTS the alcohol market and industry. ✅ #GAPC2017 with Prof Tim Stockwell @_PHAA_— Elizabeth Connor (@LC_ideas_health) October 5, 2017
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