Wednesday
Sep302009
Tobacco faces "nuclear option"
Wednesday, September 30, 2009 "Bans on lighting up indoors, tobacco advertising stopped, under-the-counter sales, the war against smoking goes further every year. But could plain, white packets be the nuclear option against the industry?" asks the BBC News website today.
The article features comments from Sydney University's Becky Freeman, co-author of The Case for the Plain Packaging of Tobacco Products, plus quotes from British American Tobacco, ASH and Forest. Click HERE.
Reader Comments (16)
Sydney University's Becky Freeman, co-author of The Case for the Plain Packaging of Tobacco Products.
Well that sounds like a cushy job does it not ?
Wow, I wish I could be a talentless pratt like that making a fortune out of gullible dumb moronic politicians .
Wow they really are a pushover ,are they not .
Question is why?
The answer is simple .
Their ."simple".
Well the whole scam is simple in its structure.
The parasite and the host I mean.
The two way parasite and host.
Politician accomadates parasite, (money to be made here),
Parasite accomadates Politician, (money to be made here),
The lobbyist ,another type of Parasite (working for a large Parasite with an awfully large amount of money ),
provides the money.
Result ,well the result is daft legislation imposed ,and I mean imposed on ourselves
Smoking bans are all about money.
Just follow the money.
Vile is it not?
Yuk.
Isn't it funny that the ONE person whose opinion they practically NEVER seem to seek................is THE SMOKER ?
Bad manners, if you ask me...........
Yes I agree Martin V but the most stupid thing about this is it applies to every other issue they deal with as well.
It's immoral.
It's also very stupid.
Brand loyalty through packaging? Plainly the woman's a moron. I smoke my brand because it tastes good and smokes well.
Non smokers no nothing about cigarettes. Dockrell (some ASH spokeswoman, Martin I think), says they all taste the same.
Plain packets will make it harder to know authentic cigarettes from counterfeit ones.
... and those with more harmful chemicals than others...
Of course, if this happens here in the UK then it will make it more obvious who buys their cigs abroad!
Makes you wonder if this will be yet another way to persecute smokers who legally buy a legal product in Europe? I am sure they will find a way!
Plain packaging and a pack of crayons go hand in hand. It seems quite obvious that people will decorate their cigarette boxes, thus making them more attractive to children. I wonder if there will suddenly come a call to ban the sale of crayons to anyone over the age of 18..?
Current cigarette packets have identification which allows the Customs to identify if they are smuggled or counterfeit. How can you do this [and more to the point why should you] if the packaging is plain white?
Cigarettes sold under the counter and in white packaging is a counterfeiters dream.
I'm just amazed that after campaigning to get the graphic images, they now seem to think that this was a waste of time.
It is obviously eradication of tobacco step by step. They have the blanket smoking ban, they will get a vending machine ban, and now they want plain packaging. They will get it and then they will move to the next step - criminalisation of tobacco use.
Lyn. They will probably invent a law, possessing anything other than a plain packet.
Considering plain packaging” is one thing, but the conferring of the proposed legislative powers is quite another. No government should be given powers to legislate, such as the amendment contemplated, unless evidence justifying the exercise of those powers is brought forward and properly debated. The House of Lords should have none of it.
Christopher Morcom, QC
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/letters/article6156580.ece
I totally agree with the above statement Chas and it should also apply to local government! It is OUR money they are wasting and throwing away, so any of these decisions need to be made only in the full light of the evidence and after taking due and diligent note of public views!
This piece meal legislation is also very worrying, where it seems a relatively minor law is passed, often unnoticed by the public, and very quickly then added to in order to make what may have started out as a reasonable law into a totally draconian one!
How Labour, or either of other 2 main parties can expect us to believe or take seriously anything they have said in their party conferences, I don't know! We know full well that Labour lied to us prior to the last election and made mugs of many of us, so anything they say is not worth a flying fig! I honestly cannot see that either of the other 2 parties are any better; it is something that has gone on for too long and that they have got away with for too long! A very new broom is needed, one that will turn the tide back to more truth and openness in politics to reinstate some faith!
Call me a masochist (beat me and call me names as well! I LOVE it and usually pay extra *I joke of course*) but if/when The (de)Cameron gets the PM gig, he sure as S*** MUST get rid of these ar5hole quangos and spinners who come up with these idiotic ideas.
PLAIN packaging!! What are they? NUTS!? The HMCE have enough on trying to identify illegal contraband fags with it's "sophisticated" labelling, packaging and whatnot. Can you imagine anyone trying to suss out the validity of something in a plain or b & w box and/or has been designed by a 4 year old using a crayon??? Give me strength.....
I have to admit, I fell foul of some dodgy Ruski fags a few years bag. My Lord....not good.....
Excellent, I'm saving up all my empty packs to flog on ebay when they bring this in...