Wednesday
Nov272013
Plain packaging: breaking news
Wednesday, November 27, 2013 at 22:30 It's been a long day and I was about to go to bed when I read the following tweets:
@BBCBreaking: Review of cigarette packaging ordered for England, 4 months after government appeared to rule out plain packets http://t.co/582o92TA0w
@ChrisMasonBBC: Cigarette packaging: Ministers launch fresh review http://t.co/Eu6jmJN3mY
@TimesNewsdesk: Cigarettes in plain packs after Cameron U-turn http://t.co/A0ozCnkSNI
Full story, such as it is, here: Cigarette packaging: Ministers launch fresh review (BBC News)
A fresh review?! One was obviously not enough.
I'm too tired to comment now. In the morning, perhaps.
Good night.
Reader Comments (8)
You cant trust this Govt. to stick to anything they say. U turns the order of the day.
Just when we thought the tide might be turning. Too depressing.
Now there's a surprise.Not. It was only in Spring this year that a certain junior health Minister was assuring me , in person, that Plain Packs would NOT be coming in this time round. Fortunately I stopped believing in Father Xmas, the Easter Bunny and honest politicians long ago.
Uncannily, as I was reading this post first thing this morning , there came, through my window overlooking the High Street, the unmistakeable coughing/retching/sobbing and 'OMG!' sounds of 1mg Tar hitting virginal lungs. An older school girl had given a younger one a cigarette to to try -inorder to 'stay slim' and the younger girl ,who couldn't have been more than 14, was discovering-rather loudly- that slimness comes at a price. She was coughing so badly that she couldn't gag!
My point is , the younger girl hadn't had her head turned by shiny packaging (so she's obviously more mature than a certain government minister was or is) but had been induced to try one by her 'besty' or older Sister. As she bent over the gutter , her face almost as green as her uniform, I doubt she was still in the trance proven to be induced in delicate female minds by high gloss printing. She seemed to be more concerned about not reviewing her morning's cornflakes.
Not awake yet?
Things going badly at Smoky Towers today?
Oh well ....
All posture politics and particularly from Labour because they've got nothing worthwhile to offer the country.
Rose, I think it's a pre-emptive counter attack, if you can have such a thing. It's no coincidence, I believe that the plain packs announcement came hot on the heels of the hospital smoking story.
For anyone interested, I was on BBC Radio Tees this morning at 11am on both plain packs and NHS exclusion and on BBC Radio Lincs at 12.10 noon on plain packs.
David Cameron has a great opportunity to show he is not just Labour in Blue, by creating a policy difference. Labour is out of touch on this issue. The Tories should come out in support of the consumer which would win them votes - especially in marginal seats where the Tory vote will be lost to UKIP.
If the Conservatives do not make a distinction here then why should the UK's 12 million tobacco consumers vote for any of the LibLabCon?
I expect the required compelling evidence to be available in March along the following lines:
250,000 children take up smoking each year
Studies show that plain packaging deters 50% from taking up
therefore plain packaging saves !25,000 lives a year and it must be implemented immediately because every month's delay costs 10,000 lives.
Easy ain't it? And the figures don't matter because "if even one child is prevented from smoking then..." - it's worth breaching a company's right to differentiate its product from its competitors and denying consumers - who pay through the nose for the product - the right to have confidence in it.