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Thursday 22 January 2015

Guido Fawked - Plain Packaging Porkies

To the surprise of those out there on the right who thought they had seen off the issue until after May’s General Election, the Government announced late yesterday - and too late for the press to get much more than a mention into today’s papers - that legislation would be brought forward imminently for standardised packaging for cigarettes. That, to put it more directly, means plain packaging. And it means a setback for Big Tobacco.
Fart in lift Inquiry smokes out suspect

Much play was made during the later TV news bulletins that England would be only the second country, after Australia, to introduce such a measure. But plain packaging has been on the way for some time now: the only problem has been the constant barrage of misinformation from the tobacco industry. The votes are there, especially in the Commons, and with little other legislation to come before the election, it should pass easily.
So who would be up for a pointless sacrifice in the face of an increasing amount of evidence that, despite the best efforts of the industry and Rupert Murdoch’s press, plain packaging has been effective in curbing smoking in Australia? As if you need to ask: the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog are always ready to defend the indefensible. And so it came to pass.
Staines had already posted a significant slice of misinformation when he claimed that Labour’s support of plain packaging meant Andy Burnham was making an £11 billion unfunded spending commitment while “Auguste” Balls was away in the States. This was, of course, totally untrue, but that does not bother The Great Guido, whose response to the current proposals has come from his gofer, the odious flannelled fool Henry Cole.
Only thing wrong with this whole plain packaging malarkey is it doesn’t work” scoffed Master Cole yesterday evening, following up with “If there was any public desire for plain packs the PM and Hunt would have trailed this. Instead it was snuck out with zero fanfare. Telling”. Telling what? The first place that legislation should be announced should be in Parliament. Or has he forgotten the press kicking Tone and Pa Broon for doing otherwise?
But never mind, onwards and, er, onwards: “Here’s what happens after plain packs are introducedtells Cole, managing to miss that the 2010 to 2013 comparison made it the data set he cites being meaningless - plain packaging was introduced in Australia at the end of 2012. Then he blames a rotten leftie. “Luciana Berger’s mask slips when asked directly if smoking will one day be banned: ‘we’ll have to see’. Wrong answer”.

Quite apart from the pretentiousness - as if Master Cole is there to sit in judgment on what answers are or are not acceptable - the evidence from Australia, as I’ve posted previously (see HERE and HERE) shows that plain packaging is working. The spinning against it is no more than sucking up to Big Tobacco, which in the case of the Fawkes rabble is done indirectly, via their grovelling commitment to Creepy Uncle Rupe.

And, as in Australia, that spin isn’t going to work. Another fine mess, once again.

2 comments:

rob said...

It ain't necessarily so
It ain't necessarily so
The facts and the views
You hear on Fox News,
It ain't necessarily so.

Birmingham is large, but oh my
Birmingham is huge, but oh my
The no goeth zones
Are divided with cones
But only for cars, my oh my

Paris is chic, but oh my
Paris is chic, but oh my
All races proudly gather
To voice their great anger
Against bigot presenters, oh my

Well, it ain't necessarily so
Well, it ain't necessarily so
Fox News tells you viewers
Moslems are no gooders,
But it ain't necessarily so !

Oh Louise, she writes in New York,
Oh Louise, she lives in New York
Her tweets are outrageous
Not particularly courageous
Let's hope she avoids mentioning pork

Now the Uk has Guido, what a sight
Now the Uk has Guido, what a sight
Whilst fagging for Rupert
The facts aren't important
Just gossip that favours the right.


Well, it ain't necessarily so
Well, it ain't necessarily so
They tells all you peoples
That's Rupert's a villain,
But it ain't necessarily not so

mm1145 said...

what is wrong with the answer ‘we’ll have to see’ I am sure there are quite a few people who would like to see smoking banned and lots who would not a wait and see answer is not a bad one in the situation