ASH say that their latest poll contains "none of the hypothetical stuff that we did in our previous survey" (see previous post).
Other tobacco control campaigners however remain hopelessly addicted to what they euphemistically call "hypothetical scenarios".
Take the Department of Health's long-awaited review of the evidence relating to plain packaging, published yesterday as part of the launch of the public consultation.
Back in December health secretary Andrew Lansley promised us an "independent academic review". Independent? Believe me, there's nothing "independent' about this review.
Take the ten-man review panel. Some names – Professor Gerard Hastings, Linda Bauld and Ann McNeill to name three – will be familiar to readers of this blog because they are leading members of the tobacco control industry.
A further three are colleagues of Prof Hastings at Stirling University. The remaining four work at the EPPI-Centre, Institute of Education, University of London, where they work in children's health. There is not a single marketing, communications or branding expert on the panel.
As for "evidence", give me strength. My colleague Angela Harbutt read the report last night and this is her conclusion:
"The review is a joke. When the authors themselves admit that 'Many of the studies use hypothetical scenarios, and are therefore not truly able to test how individuals would react or behave if plain packaging was to be introduced', you have to wonder why they even bothered publishing this document.
"The only part of the 126-page report worth reading are the two pages where the authors list over a dozen limitations to their study. The evidence in favour of plain packaging is clearly inconclusive. Everything else is just conjecture."
See also: Evidence? What evidence? (Hands Off Our Packs) and "Not the reputable ones, but there aren't many of those" (Dick Puddlecote).
Update: Plain packaging laws undermine intellectual property (Chris Snowdon, IEA blog). Funnily enough, I don't think Chris was on the review panel. Pity.
Below: 'Anti-smoking charity reports North East support for standardised cigarette packaging' (Sky Tyne and Wear). Click for video and report.
