Ireland: Children's minister plays David versus Goliath card
Wednesday, February 18, 2015 at 13:39 According to the Irish Times yesterday:
Tobacco giant issues legal threat over plain packaging (Irish Times).
Cue faux outrage from former health minister (now children's minister) James Reilly who immediately seized the spotlight, using the letter to portray both himself and the Irish parliament as David versus Goliath:
The Oireachtas "will not be intimidated by external forces" in legislating to control tobacco use which is responsible for 5,200 deaths each year, Minister for Children James Reilly has said.
See Legal threat will not halt tobacco packaging plan, says Reilly (Irish Times) and Big Tobacco is threatening James Reilly but plain packs ‘will be in shops by May 2017’ (The Journal.ie).
I'll leave you to judge who leaked the letter but it was published just hours before the Irish Parliament health sub-committee was due to debate plain packaging.
Had it not been leaked opponents of plain packaging – including Forest – might have enjoyed greater publicity for our own message:
The Dáil health subcommittee has been urged to consider "very carefully" the risks of introducing standardised packaging of tobacco.
Speaking ahead of a debate on measures to introduce plain packaging, John Mallon, spokesman for the smokers' group Forest Eireann, said:
"James Reilly desperately wants Ireland to be the first country in Europe to introduce plain packaging but he's taking a huge and unnecessary risk with taxpayers' money.
"Standardised packaging could not only fuel illicit trade by playing into the hands of counterfeiters and criminal gangs, it could also cost the taxpayer billions of euros in compensation to the tobacco companies.
"We urge the health subcommittee to consider these risks very carefully."
Mallon said the government should wait and assess the impact of the larger health warnings that will be introduced next year as part of the EU's revised Tobacco Products Directive.
See Plain packaging a "huge and unnecessary risk" (Forest Eireann).
Anyway we weren't totally ignored. John appeared on the TV3 and UTV news programmes and today's Irish Sun features a head-to-head 'debate' between John and the man he calls "Stubbs Reilly".
Here's what John had to say:
James Reilly desperately wants Ireland tone the first country in Europe to introduce plain packaging but he's taking a huge and unnecessary risk with taxpayer's money.
Standardised packaging could not only fuel the illicit trade by playing into the hands of counterfeiters, it could also cost the taxpayer billions of euros in compensation for the tobacco companies.
The Government can't deny intellectual property rights. If Steve Jobs had been told that he could sell his Apple products but couldn't have the logo on them he'd have taken action so it is understandable that tobacco companies are doing the same.
Putting cigarettes in standardized packs is yet another attempt to de-normalise a legal product, stigmatizing those who consume it.
The measures are based on the fallacy that children find so-called glitzy packaging appealing. But children aren't allowed to smoke, and if you go into a shop, cigarettes are out of view, so removing the brand is not going to make a bit of difference.
Meanwhile expect more 'David versus Goliath' nonsense as the tobacco companies understandably try to protect their intellectual property.
Update: Our old friend John Crown has called for a 99 per cent tax on the profits of tobacco companies - if they pursue their threats of legal action against the State.
See: Senator calls for 99% tax on tobacco profits amid legal threat (Irish Examiner).
He really is a plonker.
Update: The Irish Times has an online readers' poll on plain packaging. Please vote. Click here.
Reader Comments (6)
Good. I just hope the tobacco companies mean it. I’ve not heard any news about the outcome of the legal challenge to plain packs in Australia (have you, Simon?), but the cigarettes there are certainly all plain packaged, which would tend to indicate that the legal challenge either went nowhere or was lost or is still ongoing, but I’m not sure which. However, if they’re thinking of mounting a similar challenge in Ireland, then that would tend to indicate that it’s ongoing and/or that they are confident of winning.
Unless, of course, it’s just empty posturing on their behalf. I really hope not, because it’s about time the tobacco companies - who are, after all (and despite your own sterling efforts on our behalf, Simon!) the only really Big Hitters on the side of the smoking community - stood up to these do-gooding bullies and took them to task on their lies, their mealy-mouthed machinations and their arrogant attitude that they have the right to boss everyone – adult consumers, retailers and manufacturers alike – around, and gave them a bloody nose.
Even if, as we all know, the tobacco companies’ only real concern is their bottom line rather than their customers’ interests, it would be good to see the prohibitionists having to fight a bit to get their way, rather than, as usually happens, everybody just rolling over and doing as they are told the moment some mouthpiece of Tobacco Control makes any proposal, no matter how ludicrous, unreasonable or spiteful.
61.4% Yes, 38.6% No (to the introduction of PP).
Given that polls have shown people generally to be massively indifferent to the subject of PP, unless the poll has had only 5 or so votes, I'd say there has been a bit of manipulation of the figures there. We all know how the TC organisations mobilise the faithful when there's a poll going. Of course sites like this one encourage people to vote in these polls, too, but I suspect a much more military approach is adopted by the well funded organisations.
The Irish government is David to the tobacco industry's Goliath? Err, which one has an army?
I am pretty sure that at the time PP was being introduced the Labor government at the time "changed the law" so that they could take a companies logo trade mark property so long as the government did not profit from the aqquisition.So that when BAT took them to court, the government would win.
So at the moment PP is legal in Australia but a number of countries are taking the Australian government to the world trade court.If the Australian government lose their case there it will cost the Australian taxpayer billions in compensation!
The introduction of plain packages not only infringes upon the property rights (brand and intellectual property) of the tobacco companies, it is also poor policy. No credible evidence shows a decrease in smoking or consumption as a result of plain packages. In fact in Australia consumption among youth smokers actually--the reverse of the stated goal of this draconian measure. In addition, plain packs have been a boon for gangsters.
Retaliating against the tobacco companies for seeking judicial protection of their rights is unfair on its face. The state should not use its power to deny due process.
Finally, casting tobacco companies as Goliath is an outright lie. In the past tobacco companies wielded political influence. In the era of sustained tobacco control efforts by government and tobacco control advocates, we have seen governments at all levels from town councils to nation states to supranational, multinational organs team with civil society and pharmaceutical companies to develop a well-funded antismoker machine. Today tobacco companies and smokers are David. Once again the tobacco control mafia uses propaganda to sustain its assault on liberty.
Thanks for the update, Steve. I’m amazed that there wasn’t an outcry from all companies about the Aussie Govt taking such a radical step in granting themselves permission to steal company logos to further political aims. Because even if, for now, the new law only applies to tobacco companies, if in the future they wanted to “get tough” on any other “sinful” or “unhealthy” industries they could simply cite the same “reasons” as justification for passing another law permitting them to steal the logos etc of any other companies of which they disapprove, and those other companies wouldn’t have a leg to stand on, having accepted this one in principle simply by not making so much as a squeak of protest.
I’m flabbergasted. Wow. The more I hear/see about the world these days, the more I begin to think that the worldwide economic meltdown wasn’t actually caused by greedy bankers or loan-addicted governments, but that it was caused because virtually all giant industries now are run by gullible fools who spend more time burying their heads in the sand than they do taking a tough, realistic look at the world around them and reacting appropriately. Except, of course, for the tobacco companies, for whom burying their heads in the sand just isn’t an option these days. Maybe that’s why Governments around the world seem to despise them so much. How ironic! It’s enough to make one go searching for that old tinfoil hat from one's student days …