Smoke-free generation: Is this Sunak’s legacy?
Radical with Amol Rajan
BBC
4.5 • 919 Ratings
🗓️ 18 April 2024
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How big a social change will Rishi Sunak’s smoking bill prove – and why does he want this to be his legacy?
On this week’s podcast Amol and Nick look at what the plan to end smoking for the younger generation – which passed its first parliamentary hurdle this week – says about the direction of the Conservative Party and the control Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has over his MPs.
They’re joined by Sir David Davis, known for his campaigning on civil liberties, who explains why he believes the smoking bill is the right side of “nanny statism”.
And chef, novelist and judge of the Great British Bake Off, Dame Prue Leith, pops into the studio to provide her view on whether similar action is needed to tackle obesity - and to share her moment of the week.
Episodes of The Today Podcast land every Thursday and watch out for bonus episodes. Subscribe on BBC Sounds to get Amol and Nick's take on the biggest stories of the week, with insights from behind the scenes at the UK's most influential radio news programme. If you would like a question answering, get in touch by sending us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 4346 or email us Today@bbc.co.uk
The Today Podcast is hosted by Amol Rajan and Nick Robinson, both presenters of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the UK’s most influential radio news programme. Amol was the BBC’s media editor for six years and is the former editor of the Independent, he’s also the current presenter of University Challenge. Nick has presented the Today programme since 2015, he was the BBC’s political editor for ten years before that and also previously worked as ITV’s political editor.
The senior producer is Tom Smithard, the producers are Hazel Morgan and Joe Wilkinson. The editor is Louisa Lewis. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths. Technical production from Dafydd Evans. Digital production from Elliot Ryder.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. Hello. Been six weeks. I've missed you. Be honest, how much have you missed me? Come on. Withdrawal symptoms. Have you been looking in the mirror, having a conversation with yourself saying, I hope a mole's going to be coming back. Is that the time? We have. It's good to be back together. |
| 0:21.1 | It's good to be back. And also, it's nice to be, you know, when the big issues arise, |
| 0:24.6 | when there are, I don't know, major social changes going through Parliament, |
| 0:28.2 | I actually have sort of come to, you know, be quite fond of our conversations about it |
| 0:32.5 | with the growing band of listeners that we have. So it's good to be back as a massive social reform goes through Parliament. |
| 0:39.0 | Yeah, the longer I've been out of covering Westminster politics, the more I've realised that it is the things that don't produce the sound and the fury that sometimes turn out to be the most important. |
| 0:51.1 | And of course, the rouse about tax and spend about Angela Rainer's |
| 0:56.8 | capital gains tax bill, they may well matter. They may affect politics for the next few days, |
| 1:03.4 | weeks, even months. But the biggie, much bigger than any of those that really matters |
| 1:09.5 | were discussed this week, which is the idea of creating a smoke-free generation, |
| 1:15.4 | a generation of young people who simply are not allowed to buy. |
| 1:19.6 | Cigarette, cigars, anything with tobacco in it. |
| 1:22.9 | A gradual phased smoking ban. |
| 1:26.2 | As Neil Ferguson, Professor Neil Ferguson said in an early episode, |
| 1:29.5 | or as we worked out in his presence, |
| 1:32.1 | podcasts are like a bridge between news and history. |
| 1:35.5 | So today we're going to ask, |
| 1:36.6 | could a smoke-free generation be Rishi Sunak's legacy? |
| 1:40.6 | We do it? |
| 1:41.3 | Let's do it. |
| 1:43.7 | Music We do it? Let's do it. Hello, it's a mole and it's very good to be back in the today podcast studio with you, |
| 1:58.0 | our lovely listeners, and yes, with you, Nicholas. He says that |
... |
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