Simon Clark - Taking Liberties

Well, fancy that – the Communist Party of Australia has thrown its weight behind ASH and the campaign for plain packaging of tobacco.

The sovereignty of countries should be absolute and not influenced by multinational companies with complex accountability. This laudable move towards plain packaging must not be derailed by veiled tactics from companies with vested interests ...

Blah, blah, blah.

Full story: The fight for plain packaging of tobacco

As a companion piece you might like to read an article by Simon Hills, associate editor of The Times Magazine. Writing for Forest's sister campaign, The Free Society, in February, Simon commented:

One of the most informative journeys I ever made was across the then Soviet Union when Gorbachev was in power. It was a nation for whom big business, whether it was tobacco or life-saving pharmaceuticals, was as desirable as sick. Everything therefore, was sold in plain packaging. No advertisements, no colours. Often, of course, no products – a bit of a drawback when the product was food.

See: No choice, no quality, worse tobacco

Tough choice – communism or the free market. ASH must be so proud.

Update on Tuesday, April 24, 2012 at 11:58 by

Simon Clark

The online magazine Spiked has today joined forces with Hands Off Our Packs to oppose plain packaging:

Brendan O'Neill, editor of Spiked, which focuses on politics, culture and society from a humanist and libertarian viewpoint, said: “Plain packaging is a free speech issue, plain and simple.

“In demanding that cigarettes be stuffed into boxes with no branding or logos on them, the authorities are denying companies the right to publish perfectly reasonable and inoffensive material: the names of their products.

“In any other area of life, such a heavy-handed obliteration of the freedom to state one’s name in public would be frowned upon. And so it should be frowned upon here too.

“Anyone who believes in liberty, democracy and choice should support the campaign to get the state’s hands off our packs.”

Full story: "Plain packaging is a free speech issue"

As some of you will know, Spiked was founded in 2000, rising from the ashes of Living Marxism.

Update: Spiked has today published articles on plain packaging by Chris Snowdon and Patrick Basham. See Old moralism in new packaging and Monkey see, monkey smoke respectively.