Patrick Basham

Patrick Basham is the director of the London and Washington based think tank the Democracy Institute.

Views

Tobacco

Basham criticised the WHO's anti-tobacco efforts which are centred on the 2003 Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. He described the framework as "The well-intentioned blind leading the blind," going on to say that:

Smoking levels naturally drop off - as they have in Western countries - when populations become richer and better-educated,

Adding:

The cynical view is that the anti-tobacco lobby has itself now become an industry and we will never be able to do enough to stop smoking.

And:

Tobacco use will change, but it has very little to do with the kinds of things WHO is promoting.