David Cameron: no decision on plain packaging
Thursday, March 7, 2013 at 13:43 H/T Gary Rogers for this comment on a previous thread:
Just seen David Cameron on Sky News, he said after a question was put to him about the above [plain packaging], he said no decision has been taken, we have to look at the evidence.
(Scroll down for update.)
Gary's comment was posted at 13:09 today. Two hours earlier Forest issued this press release:
Campaigners have described as a “confidence trick” a report that the UK government has decided to introduce plain packaging for tobacco products.
Quoting a “senior Whitehall source“, a national newspaper this week claimed that legislation would be announced in the Queen's speech in May.
Simon Clark, director of the smokers’ group Forest which runs the Hands Off Our Packs campaign, said:
“Writing in the same newspaper in 2006 the chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) said that ‘It is essential that campaigners create the impression of inevitable success. Campaigning of this kind is literally a confidence trick: the appearance of confidence both creates confidence and demoralises the opposition’.
“Far from being demoralised, we accept in good faith the assertion this week by the prime minister’s official spokesman that the Government is still considering proposals to make plain packaging compulsory.
“Likewise health minister Anna Soubry reiterated in a written answer to a member of parliament that the Government still has an ‘open mind’ on plain packaging.
“Given that 700,000 people responded to the consultation on standardised packaging, half a million of them opposed to the measure, I find it hard to believe that any government would introduce a policy that has been rejected so decisively by so many people.
“Anti-smoking lobbyists may have pulled a ‘confidence trick’ on government once but ministers should now be wise to their game."
Hands Off Our Packs campaigner Angela Harbutt said: “The battle is neither won nor lost. It’s not too late to make a difference so I urge opponents of plain packaging to write to their MP using the template letter on our website, Say No To Plain Packs.”
Update: We're trying to get a transcript of the exact words Cameron used. I'll keep you posted.
Simon Clark
More info on the background to David Cameron's comment about plain packaging (above).
The PM was in Yorkshire visiting manufacturers in the region. At a meeting attended by local manufacturers and MPs (with the BBC and Sky News in attendance) he was asked the following question by Mike Ridgway, spokesman for a local tobacco packaging manufacturer:
"Prime Minister, welcome to Yorkshire, welcome to the centre of manufacturing. Yesterday the front page of the Guardian purported that the Government had decided to introduce plain packaging for tobacco products.
Last week at PMQs you said that you were following Australia and you were monitoring the situation. Can you confirm whether that decision has been taken yet? And the reason I ask is that we have three very successful businesses here in the Bradford area employing many hundreds of people, and they really want to know what the latest is on that .. concerning their future."
I am still waiting to confirm Cameron's exact words but his response was unequivocal - the Government has NOT made a decision about plain packaging.
Reader Comments (1)
We get the subject news very often for "govt. rules on specific packaging format" as a measure to reduce tobacco or cigarette use by the people. But are such measures actually affecting the users of these products? Is there any stats supporting the same...