Debating Europe: Is it time to ban branding on cigarette packs?
Monday, April 13, 2015 at 10:26 A couple of months ago I was asked to take part in an online debate about plain packaging.
The invitation read:
Would you be available to answer a few questions from European citizens on the enforcement of plain cigarette packs across Europe in a short Skype or telephone interview in the coming days, as part of the successful online discussion platform Debating Europe, launched in 2011 in partnership with the European Parliament, Microsoft, Gallup and Skype.
Debating Europe is designed to engage citizens and policymakers in an ongoing conversation on a range of vital issues shaping our future. It's based on a simple model: citizens ask questions, policymakers and experts respond. It’s proved to be a popular idea: in under three years, it's built-up a 750,000 strong community of citizens and over 195,000 Facebook and Twitter followers from across Europe to debate with its leaders. To date a selection of 35,000 questions have been put to over 900 key policymakers and experts. Please click here for our debates.
We plan to publish a debate looking at the enforcement of plain cigarette packs across Europe in the second half of March and we would be very happy to have your contribution in this. We would ask three or four questions on behalf of European citizens and the interview would just take 5-10 minutes.
After a couple of false starts we agreed a date for the interview – March 12. My inquisitor, Naomi, was very charming and after we overcame one or two technical hitches we rattled through the questions in around ten minutes.
The debate, I was told, would be posted online within a couple of weeks but 14 days passed and nothing appeared.
On March 26 I emailed: 'Just curious to know when the plain packaging debate will be posted.'
To be fair they responded immediately: 'We are planning on publishing the debate early next week (Mon or Tuesday). I will send you a link when it’s up!'
As of this morning there was still no sign of it so I sent another email: 'I'm curious why the debate on plain packaging has still not been published. Any reason for this?'
Back came this response:
Thank you for helping in arranging the interview! [Your] answers on cigarette packaging have been published in today’s post on Debating Europe: Is it time for health warnings to replace all branding on cigarette packs?
The article has been promoted on Facebook and Twitter, and is open for citizens to comment through our comments section here.
The 'debate' is effectively between Eoin Bradley, 'advocacy officer' at the Irish Cancer Society, and Axel Gietz, director of group corporate affairs at Imperial Tobacco.
My contribution is restricted to answering a more general question: 'Is there a public health argument to be made for trying to reduce the number of smokers in Europe?'
As for the delay in publishing, I'm not a conspiracy theorist but I do wonder if Debating Europe struggled to find tobacco control advocates willing to debate the issue.
After all, Brussels-based lobbyists are not known for their commitment to open, transparent debate. (See EU couldn't make it up.)
Anyway you can read/view the 'debate' here: Is it time for health warnings to replace all branding on cigarette packs?.
The nice people at Debating Europe invite comments so please take a moment to respond.
PS. My interview was conducted via Skype on an iPad. It was the first time I've used Skype on an iPad and only the second time I've used Skype at all so the picture is, how shall I say, less than flattering.
I'll try and do better next time.
Reader Comments (2)
If the smokerphobics want it they will get it. The public nor the consumer matter one bit as far as this issue is concerned and we will be ignored. Faux debates, fake consultations, it's all wallpaper.
After all, we wasted our time and our breath on 2 very expensive and already decided British consultations that ignored the majority of public opinion in favour of bigotry, bullying and lies by a paid minority.
#WeSmokeWeVote and we really have no other alternative to make our views listened to than by voting in our own representtaives who will not treat us as second class citizens.
Reasonably long comment left - off(?) topic but quite salient.