I wasn't planning to write about plain packaging today. (Give it a rest, I hear you cry!)
It's impossible however not to comment on the hysterical but manufactured reaction to the Government's decision not to include it in the Queen's Speech.
All the usual suspects are screaming blue murder, pointing the finger at Lynton Crosby, "the Tories' new campaign strategist ... whose PR and lobbying firm Crosby Textor has long-standing links with the alcohol and tobacco industries" (New Statesman).
This conveniently ignores both the lack of evidence in favour of standardised packaging and the fact that 500,000 people opposed the measure in a public consultation.
Amid all the name-calling and temper tantrums ("I'll thcream and thcream until I'm thick"), I detect shock and embarrassment.
Substantial sums of public money have been squandered by tobacco control on a campaign that failed to convince the PM and his Cabinet that plain packaging would work or had the support of the general public.
Publicly-funded websites were commandeered to persuade people to sign petitions in favour of plain packaging.
Former health secretary Andrew Lansley was at one point listed as a supporter of plain packaging on the Plain Packs Protect website.
Public health minister Anna Soubry has been actively (and sometimes furtively) lobbying for plain packs for months.
Despite this – and whatever may happen in future – they couldn't get the policy over the line. Advocates have failed in their quest.
Like a football manager whose team has been beaten by a goal in the last minute after a long unbeaten run, tobacco control lobbyists are lashing out.
We wuz robbed! The goal was offside! We should have had a penalty! The referee was nobbled! Disgusting tackle, their centre back should have been sent off! The opposition didn't play fair, we were supposed to win!
By any standards, this has been an epic fail.
See: Not fair! wail tobacco control industry (It's All Bollocks) and The final throw of the dice for plain packs is so predictable (Dick Puddlecote)
Also: Independent fires blanks as it misses the real story (Hands Off Our Packs)