Thursday
May022013
Plain packaging proposal to be scrapped?
Thursday, May 2, 2013 at 9:30 The Sun reports that David Cameron has scrapped plans to put cigarettes in standardised packaging.
Full report: Plain fag packets plan up in smoke
Forgive me if I don't jump up and punch the air just yet.
If the story is true however then the PM deserves praise for ignoring the screams of the tobacco control lobby.
Their bleating will no doubt increase to a crescendo over the next few days (expect letters in every national newspaper) but today's report offers hope that their desperate bully-boy tactics don't always work.
Chris Snowdon has more here - Plain packs ditched.
Reader Comments (5)
However, me thinks that Cameron's relent, as in immigration, is more to do with a certain person by the name of Nigel Farage whose party is creeping up the polls, and has nothing to do with standing up to Tobacco Control or giving the people what they want!
I'm optimistically cautious. I'll believe it when I see it but that is now two papers claiming it to be true (the other was the Mirror) If it is announced though, there must be a public inquiry into how Simon Chapman and the Aus tobacco control industry knew we were getting it months ago when both announced on Twitter it was a done deal. If it goes ahead there will be many questions to ask about the corrupt process and many lawsuits will follow - plus those millions of lost votes currently flooding UKIP's way will never go back to the Tories.
Well done Simon you And Angela have worked very hard on this issue. It's funny on the day of an election where here in Dartford and many other parts of the country the Conservative's are in for a kicking they have done a u-turn on plain packaging, are they that worried about UKIP now?, because many people are feed up with the nanny state, trust me.
A black eye for ASH zealots...a waste of tax-payers money!
First and foremost a massive thumbs up to Simon and Forest with the great success of their ‘Hands off our Packs’ campaign.
I think it’s also worth bearing in mind that UKIP have nudged a panicky Cameron in that direction, and if UKIP’s general standing in the country, and their promise to scrap the smoking ban hadn’t been so high profile, then Cameron would have tried to find some way around this even though there was huge public opposition, as was graphically shown in the Forest campaign.
But despite there being a whole host of issues surrounding plain packaging, not least the theft of intellectual property rights and the ability of tobacco companies to use branding in the sale of their legal products – Cameron would most certainly have been dragged down the road to further legislation by the likes of ASH, thankfully however, UKIP have proved to be the perfect political counter-balance.
Whilst UKIP maintain prominence with the voters (which they will going up to the next election), then Cameron is essentially hog-tied on this and effectively any other tobacco related issue - since he is now fully aware of Farage's opposition to the smoking ban.
If UKIP hold the balance of power at the next election, then most certainly there will be ferocious efforts at the very least to amend or neuter the smoking ban in return for their support – and this will be very difficult for other parties to resist.
What an absolute god send we have in Nigel Farage, a politician at last who will stand his ground and insist on changes being made, especially the dissolution of quango’s, which he considers to be a massive drain on the tax-payer and who have lived high on the hog for far too long.
In the previous post I had to smile at Andy Burnham’s reaction: Andy Burnham, Labour’s shadow health secretary, said the government had “completely lost its way” on public health. Is he serious didn’t he say back in 2009
“As yet, no studies have shown that introducing plain packaging of tobacco would cut the number of young people smoking or enable people who want to quit to do so.” Andy Burnham, Secretary of State for Health, letter, 9 November 2009
Yep – he did say that.
This is the first step of many to come. May we live in interesting times.
Respect for your lungs is the way we need to try to keep youngsters away from the dangers of smoking. Instead of naughtiness being attached to the habit and associations with becoming grown-up, it should be associated totally with stupidity and illhealth.