It will not work
What the hell is this obsession with plain packs on cigarettes?
There are two items in today's news – one that the tobacco companies are going to demand compensation here and the other that the UK is off on the bandwagon again.
Australia are a year of plain packs and so far the only results have been that more smokers may have actually thought about quitting but in fact haven't, and that there has been a massive boom in smuggled and forged cigarettes. [Chris Snowdon has an interesting take on the "compelling evidence" from the Antipodes]
Logic alone will tell that this is a nonsensical move. Where are the kids supposed to be seeing these "glitzy" packs that the Antis want to ban? They don't see them advertised because all advertising is banned. They can't see them in the shops because it's illegal even to give a glimpse of any kind of tobacco display. The only place they can possibly see a pack is in the street by which time presumably they have already purchased them?
The hysterical screeches from across the water show the level of self delusion that's at play here –
“The evidence to support standardised packaging is clear. The consensus is overwhelming. We don’t need any further delay while 570 children are lighting up for the first time every day.”
Apart from the evidence being non-existent and there being a consensus only amongst the Control Fascists, why the hell can't they just apply the law as it stands, and has stood for many years – no sales to under 18s?
“This decision is a victory for public health, for common sense and for future generations who will as a result be protected from glitzy, colourful and misleading tobacco packaging."
So "protecting kids from glitzy packaging is somehow going to succeed where every single other measure has failed abysmally?
Plain packs will have a huge impact on the market all right. Smugglers and counterfeiters will make a fortune. Manufacturers of covers and cigarette cases will do very well. Tobacco retailers will find their work cut out double checking all sales. Governments will lose out massively on revenue from tax and excise, and smokers will carry on as normal.
I can't help but wonder what insane scheme the Fascists will dream up next.
I´m from Sweden so don´t put me down in case my spelling and grammar is off;) In your last sentence you wonder what they will dream up next. Sit tight, it´s on it´s way:
"Also sweets are on the EU’s verboten-list. Chocolate that is shaped like cigarettes must no longer be sold in the future. In the EU parliament’s view, chocolate cigarettes are dangerous starter drugs”
That goes for licorice pipes to!
Read more: http://notrickszone.com/2013/11/10/eu-forbids-chocolate-cigarettes-dangerous-starter-drugs-but-real-cigarettes-and-cigars-to-remain-legal/
I like your blogg!
Welcome Ipse!
As the last line in your link says – "Tobacco in Europe, it seems, is far safer than chocolate." Insane. Will they also ban those chocolate finger biscuits just in case they might be confused with cigars? I suppose pens and pencils will be next, in case anyone should put them near a mouth?
Think of the most stupid, asinine, bollock-brained law or statute that it is possible to imagine and be sure of this – some dickhead in our own gubmint or their masters in the EU will have thought of it long before you. And it's probably on its way …
^^^^^^^ What he said…….
Psst. Wanna buy some shares in Whitey VanMan Inc?
No thanks. I have enough to cope with what with building up my own fleet and all.
A complete but succinct summary of the net effect of this crackpot idea. How did we get so many loonies (politicians) agreeing with other loonies (quangos and pretend charities) telling us what additional problems we need by taking as a starting point the unachievable result they'd like to see?
Welcome Mike! The problem is that they don't want to achieve that result as it would put them all out of a job. If smoking vanished, what would the likes of ASH do? And even more to the point, how would the various governments make up for the billions in lost revenue?
"how would the various governments make up for the billions in lost revenue?"
Exactly!
I love going into Tesco and ask " Please could I have 20 Top Secret B&H from your Top Secret cupboard and I will watch out for any kids approaching.." Really winds up the poor bastard who has to serve these, they, like me understand the utter stupidity of this shit.
In a similar vein I was in Aldi today (a most excellent purveyor of comestibles). The lady in front had four packs of 16 Ibuprofen and till flagged up a warning and the lovely lady shop assistant said she could only sell her a maximum of two boxes.
The lady was halfway though her shopping with have on the conveyor and half in the basket having gone through the till and she said 'Okay I understand'.
If only she had said "Fuck it. If you want to lose a £100 plus order simply because you will not sell me four boxes of ibuprofen I'll leave all this sit here, or some such, this lunacy would quickly disappear.
As my good lady pointed out she had already been sold two bottles of gin, three bottles of wine and a bottle of some other liquor which if all consumed one after the other would likely kill her or at best put her in hospital. Any one bottle taken with the 33 Ibuprofen she was allowed to buy would also hospitalise her.
Bill
It amazes me how the big supermarkets don't lobby against all this bollocks. You would think they could supply better evidence than fake charities, the NHS and such that it just deoen't make any sense at all.
Well the probable reason why they don't is they are all profitable even with the lunacy.
Much of the lunacy arrives not because the fake charities and the fake lobby group demands it I reckon its because government types, political types, the shadowing mandarin types, the legal types all believe that if the governments stinking pile of legislative rules didn't keep growing year on year they would no longer have a purpose, a job, an income, a pension.
There was no evidence that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction didn't stop the political types from lying and killing thousands of their fellow human beings in a modern day crusader 'adventure'.