This week I am going to publish some posts about the fallout from the plain packaging consultation.
In case you have forgotten, the consultation was launched in April and closed on August 10. We believe the Department of Health received over 700,000 responses, seven times more than the Government had anticipated.
It is estimated that around 500,000 responses are opposed to plain packaging, with 210,000 (perhaps a few more) in favour. As a result the consultation review, which is usually conducted within three months, is taking longer than normal.
There have been reports of "cheating" and petition "rigging". Forest's Hands Off Our Packs campaign, which submitted 235,000 signatures, has been targeted for special attention but we have kept our counsel, publicly at least.
Privately our response has been robust but it has been restricted to correspondence with the Department of Health and government ministers.
We have also spoken to and corresponded with journalists at the Guardian and the Observer but those newspapers chose not to publish our comments, even though it was they who contacted us!
We have responded openly and honestly to questions about our campaign and we are as frustrated as some of you that it has not been possible to share that information.
Until now.
So what has changed? Well, following a series of Freedom of Information requests, most of the relevant information is now in the public domain.
Second, the APPG on Smoking and Health, which is run by ASH and chaired by Stephen Williams MP, recently published a newsletter – distributed to MPs and ministers – that featured a report with the headline 'FOI request shows industry campaigners rigging plain packs petition'.
Reports like that cannot go unchallenged.
Over the next few days I will reveal the truth behind this and other allegations. One or two other bloggers may be commenting too.
Together we will try and piece together the jigsaw so that you can see the bigger picture and draw your own conclusions.