In the course of my travels I came across a couple of articles.

Both were referring to an item that appeared in The Local, in France.

Smoking on the rise in France despite rollout of plain packaging

The first of the articles I read was from Christopher Snowdon who pointed out quite reasonably that the rise in smoking in France came as no surprise whatsoever, as precisely the same thing happened in Australia.

The curse of plain packaging

The second article was by Dick Puddlecote who gives me the impression that he isn’t exactly a great fan of Tobacco Control.  [Where I get that idea from, I don’t know].

Awkward Facts Emerge From France

Incidentally, I note from the original article that France had to pay the tobacco companies €100 million in compensation.  The tobacco companies just repackaged them and sold ’em back to France.  Double whammy!  Nice one, Big Tobacco.

Tobacco Control of course dismiss all these figures on the basis that it’s to protect the cheeeldren who will be scared off by the lurid images.  Current smokers seem to be far from scared and are probably filling their little scrapbooks [anyone remember cigarette cards?], so there is no reason to expect kids to be put off.  Don’t forget that these kids have been reared in front of television screens pumping out what kids love best – monsters, ghouls, ghosts and zombies.  They have become visually immune so I can’t imagine pretty little pictures will have any effect whatsoever.  Maybe Scooby Doo has done some good after all?

Of course we have all this to look forward to in Ireland, later this year.

I have it on excellent authority that ASH and the Irish Cancer Society have already done their studies and have produced a detailed report proving conclusively that smoking rates dropped dramatically after September 2017.

Wouldn’t it be fun if they accidentally published it now?