Moaning minnies or control freaks?
Wednesday, October 3, 2012 at 15:12 
They really don't care for free speech, do they?
As Angela Harbutt reports on the Hands Off Our Packs website, tobacco control activists are complaining because the tobacco company JTI is currently running a media campaign on plain packaging.
One advertisement reads, 'Why make it easier for criminals to make a packet?'. Another, which features two identical packets side by side, says, 'How do you spot a fake pack of cigarettes?'.
To the consternation of some, JTI even placed an advertisement in the Guardian, the anti-smokers' favourite newspaper. Oh, no! How was that allowed to happen?
The main complaint is what they consider to be a "lie" – namely, the shocking suggestion that plain packs will make it easier to sell counterfeit tobacco.
Angela has more to say on this. The only point I want to make is this.
It's alright for tobacco control to advertise that 'Passive smoking kills' (with very little evidence to support this tendentious claim). And it's OK for them to allege that display bans will reduce youth smoking rates and plain packaging will "protect" children (again, with little or no evidence to support such claims).
But when others put forward a far more credible argument, based on the experiences of senior police officers, partisan campaigners cry 'foul'.
Then again, what's new? For months the tobacco control industry has been spending hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money trying to attract support for its campaign to introduce plain packaging.
Then, ever since it was revealed that opponents of plain packaging have attracted a great deal more support, anti-smoking lobbyists have tried (unsuccessfully) to discredit our campaign.
As part of this broadside a Freedom of Information request was sent to the Department of Health requesting copies of correspondence between the DH and Forest. We had no problem with that and gladly gave our permission for the letters to be released because we have nothing to hide.
Compare that to the response when opponents of plain packaging, including Forest, submitted a number of FoI requests about the pro plain pack campaign. Not only did we have to dig the information out of them, they complained (boo hoo) that they were "victims of sabotage".
What tobacco control campaigners really want is the equivalent of a one party state in which opponents are denied any kind of platform for their views.
Thankfully we still have free speech in this country – just – although it's interesting to note that our attempts to engage in open debate with public health campaigners at our Liberty Lounge event in Birmingham next week were rebuffed by everyone we invited to speak.
Sadly, we will just have to go ahead without them.
Reader Comments (4)
I wish I could be there Simon to support it and I would if I could. Don't let them silence you. Again the Tories are making it quite clear that they intend to lose the election because they just can't bear earning the smoker's vote. Maybe they think they'll get cancer from 5th hand smoke if we tick next to their party on the election ballot form.
As for the TCI being moaning minnies or control freaks. They are both and profoundly dishonest to boot.
Sadly we will get Marxist Labour back and be criminalised within five years of the next election and that will be the fault of the Tories for wanting to be Nulabour and doing what Gordon Brown did - upset all of the people all of the time.
The only real change and tolerance for both sides of this debate will only come with a UKIP presence in Parlt. Smokers should put their money where their mouth is, stop supporting our enemies and messing about and give a clear signal to their non traditional party of traditional support that they will lose their vote if they don't start listening to the 15 million voting adult consumers in the country.
Once again the Tories have proved - LibLabCon makes no difference.
It is no accident that tobacco control and for that matter public health in general is composed mostly of people with political inclinations that are a long way left of centre. You hit the nail on the head Simon, these people really do want a Soviet style one party state in which theirs is the only voice that anyone is allowed to hear. Public health is dishonest, dangerous and opposed to democracy. The fact that the mainstream media continue to uncritically support an industry that is transparently devious and economical with the truth is a great advertisement for those who provide alternative sources of news and opinion.
What tobacco control campaigners really want is the equivalent of a one party state in which opponents are denied any kind of platform for their views.
They've actually had their one party state for years. What they're really worried about is that it's coming to an end.
You maybe interested in my latest article on the plain packs consultation rigging, and the minimum pricing of alcohol. How government lies and manipulates. http://www.thecommentator.com/article/1746/government_pouring_our_money_down_the_drain_and_rigging_health_consultations_