"Experts" letter to Government on plain packaging and Forest's response
Thursday, June 12, 2014 at 15:04 Blink and you would have missed it.
The BMJ yesterday published an open letter calling on the Government to "confirm that the regulations on standardised (plain) packaging of cigarettes and tobacco products will be published soon".
It was signed by more than 600 doctors, nurses and other NHS health professionals who are described as "experts" although the exact nature of their expertise wasn't revealed.
Interestingly the letter got very little publicity. It was mentioned on ITV's Good Morning Britain for whom I did an interview, recorded in a dimly lit room in London on Tuesday afternoon.
BBC News also covered it, but only online and with a quote from Forest (Ministers urged to speed up plain cigarettes plans).
MSN News also featured it, again with a comment by Forest (Push for plain cigarette packs), and that was it, apart from one or two local papers and medical journals.
I think perhaps plain packaging fatigue has set in. For the record, here's Forest's full response:
"The government is right to take its time. The impact of standardised packaging on retailers and consumers could be extremely damaging.
"Evidence suggests that plain packaging could fuel illicit and lead to the UK being flooded with fake cigarettes.
"If the consultation on the regulations is to have any meaning ministers must keep an open mind.
"A decision to introduce standardised packaging must be based on hard evidence that it will stop the next generation of children smoking.
"Conjecture and subjective opinion, which is all we've seen so far, are not enough."
The good news, if you're opposed to plain packs, is that the consultation will gives us an excellent peg on which to hang our 'No, Prime Minister' campaign.
Out latest initiative is gathering force, and numbers, every day. Click here and here (MessageSpace).
If you haven't signed the letter to the PM opposing plain packaging please do it now.
Reader Comments (2)
They are absolutely desperate to try and rush this through before the evidence from Australia becomes more widely known and kills the idea stone dead.
Noticed that already the talk this week moved completely off smoking rates and onto the desperation button of "protecting the little cheeeeldren!
Why the hurry to impose it on us all now before the election? If David Cameron loses the election then Labour will win by default (not choice) and every single discriminatory aspect of tobacco control and their dreams of criminalisation of the adult consumer will come true.
Labour hates smokers. Labour will make possession of tobacco illegal by 2020, it will be illegal employ or house smokers under Labour too. Labour will also take away our children and forbid contact between smoker grandparents and their grandchildren.
We must use our vote very carefully in GE2015. As much as I would love to vote for UKIP here, they don't have a chance in this city so my support will go to my tolerant Tory MP to ensure it keeps out the immature and bigoted smoker hater Labour (put in because she's a woman) wannabe MP.
However, where UKIP can win, and it can in some places, vote UKIP and ensure Cameron gets the message that #WeSmokeWeVote and if organised, we can swing the result either towards him or away from him.
Whatever he does before the election, tobacco controllers, and their hater allies will vote Labour. Cameron won't lose their vote. He never had it. Does he want to risk losing his core Conservative voters and risk not picking up the lost Labour votes for ideologues he'll never win over anyway?