Guido Fawked - Cigarette Pack Of Lies

After telling the Electoral Commission that he was not going to be doing any party political campaigning in the run-up to May’s General Election, the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog have set out on a course that looks remarkably like, er, party political campaigning, and flagrantly dishonest campaigning at that, as they attempt to smear Labour on the subject of plain packaging for cigarettes.

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“Burnham Bounces Balls into £11 Billion Spending Pledge” reads the headline, with a photo of the Shadow Health Secretary speaking under the watchful eye of “Auguste” Balls captioned “BURNHAM COMMITS TO £11 BILLION SPEND WHILE BALLS IS AWAY IN D.C.”. So has the MP for Leigh made a spending commitment? But you know the answer to that one: no he hasn’t.

Here’s the typically lame argument: “Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham has been out and about this morning pushing Labour’s public health manifesto … As part of the policies, Burnham has reiterated his pledge to introduce plain packaging on tobacco (despite dismissing it back in 2008 when he was Health Secretary)”. And the introduction of plain packaging would cost £11 billion how, exactly?

You’ll love this one: “Such a move could result in a future government facing an £11 billion compensation bill to Big Tobacco, according to a report by analysts at the BNP Paribas and other legal experts”. What was that c-word, O Great Guido? Could? COULD? Yet the Fawkes folks are serious, going so far as to call this “effectively a £10 billion deficit busting new spending pledge”.

Let’s look at the Exane BNP Paribas report. “In a note to investors in tobacco stocks Exane BNP Paribas said it had taken legal advice on the potential arguments which could be used to seek compensation if plain packaging cannot be blocked altogether by big tobacco companies. “‘The strongest of the legal arguments, in our view, surrounds deprivation’ of intellectual property,’ it said”.

This depended on a favourable interpretation of part of the ECHR (!) to claim compensation, and the report then stated “It estimated this value as at £9 billion to £11 billion in Britain but admitted ‘Of course, as the industry is not likely to see its profits completely disappear such a high compensation figure seems excessive. A figure in the billions however, could well be plausible’”. Could well be plausible.

And, equally, could not. This ludicrous slice of speculation was authored by Staines himself. It does not contain the smallest sliver of truth. There is no spending commitment. This is a total pack of lies from start to finish. It has less intellectual rigour than a Janet and John book. It would be easier to stand up The Great Guido when he was totally ratarsed. But Creepy Uncle Rupe will love it. And they have to be nice to him.

The desperation of the Fawkes rabble knows no bounds. Another fine mess, once again.