Is there anything more nauseous than listening to vapers calling for a ban on smoking in public places?
Earlier this week Juliette Tworsey (a vaper herself) described how vapers ruthlessly threw smokers under the bus in their desperate attempt to stop vaping being banned in bars and casinos in New Orleans.
Well, the gamble failed. Instead of joining forces with smokers and others opposed to excessive regulations, the e-cigarette community (including retailers) is now left to rue what happens if you side with tobacco control and thereby split what opposition there is to smoking bans.
Chances are that New Orleans City Council would have banned smoking and vaping anyway but working together smokers and vapers could have made far more noise.
Campaigning on the bigger issue (freedom of choice) might also have won over some non-smokers who don't give a toss about "harm reduction". Why would they? They don't smoke!
Instead self-interest took over and look what happened.
What some vapers don't seem to understand is the principle behind our opposition to smoking bans. The argument is not just about health, it's about politicians and tobacco control campaigners dictating beyond all reasonable measure how we should live our lives.
Unfortunately the vaping community's obsession with harm reduction (a perfectly honourable goal) has clouded their judgement and their choice of allies. They're quite happy to see smokers (which most of them once were) ostracised and excluded as long as they're given a free pass.
Well, it doesn't work like that. When governments worldwide began introducing comprehensive smoking bans it became clear that fairness was no longer part of the equation and appeals for moderation were falling on deaf ears.
As I (and others) keep saying, this is not about health, it's about control.
Meanwhile several people have questioned why we're fighting plain packaging. "You'll still be able to buy cigarettes so why does it matter?"
It matters because plain packaging represents the further denormalisation of smoking and, by association, smokers themselves.
It infantilises the consumer and creates an unhealthy precedent for similar policies in relation to sugary drinks and alcohol (for example).
To paraphrase David Hockney (who was talking about those ubiquitous 'No Smoking' signs), plain packaging represents the "uglification of England".
It also represents the staggering theft by the state of an entire industry's intellectual property. For that to happen in an allegedly free market, capitalist society is remarkable, yet it's happening here and now under our very noses.
The fact that it's being introduced by an allegedly Conservative prime minister makes it even more obscene.
When I commented on Twitter that the PM's decision had made me question whether to vote Conservative in May one person asked, "Is that really a defining issue for you in a General Election?"
Well, yes, as it happens because there's an important principle at stake. If a Tory government is going to abandon the values that I (as a lifelong Conservative voter) thought the party believed in, why should they get my vote now or in the future?
Like those myopic vapers in New Orleans, the PM seems to have abandoned principle for short-term gain. To say it sucks is an understatement.
Update: The following has just been tweeted. It's a letter to rabid anti-smoking campaigner Ruth Malone from a vaper. Worth reading:
@simonclark_ Those NO vapers are daft but pls don't tar all w/ same brush. This http://t.co/9LHIsGSK0i still the most read/shared on my blog
— Dan (@danmacdonald73) January 25, 2015