In Saturday's Telegraph you report the sad news that the tobacco industry has succeeded in stopping the government's intended ban on cigarette advertising (Tobacco advert ban is overruled, 30 October 1999).

Thirty years ago, when no one realised how harmful smoking was, there was nothing discreditable about cigarette advertising. But he situation has changed completely: we now know beyond any reasonable doubt that in Britain alone tens of thousands of people die every year as a result of
smoking. Worldwide the number is estimated at 3 million, and set to rise dramatically in the coming years as tobacco companies target developing countries as "emerging markets" for their pernicious products. Facts like these take time to sink in. When they do one is left feeling incredulous that any kind of advertising or promotion is still allowed, let alone that worldwide billions of pounds are still being spent every year on it! And that cigarettes are still displayed and sold at every supermarket till in country.

Knowing what we now do about the harmful, i.e. lethal effects of cigarette smoking, promoting it in any way at all is nothing less than EVIL! The people who do it and profit from it (including tobacco company shareholders!) are acting like criminals and deserve to be treated as such. They should have every ill-gained penny taken from them and the most culpable should be put behind bars! They know what they are doing, but do it because the law lets them get away with it, just as the law in
Serbia allowed paramilitary forces to get away with murder and ethnic cleansing in Kosovo.

Such a comparison is more than justified when you consider that far more people die in Kosovo each year as a result of smoking than were murdered by the Serbs.

Encouraging anyone to smoke is also a crime against humanity and should be punished as such. It is just as evil as peddling hard drugs.

The history of the tobacco industry and its response to the slowly emerging truth about the harmfulness of its products would make a very interesting and useful case study. I am sure that it is not the only industry to put its own, narrow-minded self-interest before everything else - even before the health and lives' of its customers.

It is the ugly face of capitalism showing itself (exploiting as it does the primitive, ego-centric self-interest that is a part of our human nature). And it is ugly indeed, the way it twists or simply denies the truth in the service of its own evil ends. Just listen to the spokesmen (or women) of the tobacco industry, or the politicians and lawyers it has in its pocket. They even have the audacity to claim that the billions of dollars they spend each year on advertising and promotion have no influence on whether or not people smoke, but only on the brand. Let them try telling that to St. Peter when their time comes and they want to pass through those pearly gates!

The same primitive, ego-centric self-interest can be seen operating in each and everyone of us, so it is hardly surprising that it is also seen at all levels and in all forms of organisation. Nuclear energy and GM foods are other classic examples of vested interests being blindly justified and defended - at least by some - at all costs.