Pages

More Government lobbying Government

The campaign for plain cigarette packs is really starting to take off in the media. It's a pity the campaign against plain packaging isn't getting the same exposure.


Our local paper has also started pushing the foregone agenda.
PARENTS in East Lancashire are supporting a campaign for cigarettes to have plain packaging to make them less appealing to children.
Hundreds of parents in the area have signed up to support the Plain Packs Protect campaign, which aims to introduce standardised cigarette packaging to discourage children from starting smoking.
Hundreds of parents, or useful idiots who have been brainwashed by the anti tobacco agenda, have signed the petition. As one person noted in the comments, 100,000 didn't sign. East Lancashire is a big area.
The results of the campaign will be fed into a national three-month Government consultation, which is due to launch this spring and will determine the amount of support for plain packaging.
The trouble is, this campaign is not open and honest. The Government is joining in the campaign on the side of plain packs. The Government is paying lobby groups with our money to push the agenda for plain packs.

Dick Puddlecote has already pointed out Government lobbying Government in this post
Total budget in financial year 2011/12: £468,462.06

Billboards - £100,398.00
Digital advertising (including website design) - £127,685.77
Community events (including related payments to staff) - £99,146.00
Other social marketing avenues - £141,232.29
"Funding for the plain packs protect project is included within the annual contribution paid to Smokefree South West."
The budget for Smokefree South West comes entirely from local Primary Care Trusts. The NHS. The taxpayer.

And now this:
Andrea Crossfield, director of Tobacco Free Futures, which is leading the Plain Packs Protect campaign in the North West, said: “It’s not adults that start smoking, it’s children.
She urged people to pledge their support for the campaign at www.tobaccofreefutures.org
Tobacco Free Futures is also funded entirely by local Primary Care Trusts.

The government is taking tax money from smokers and giving it to the NHS, who then pass it on to local lobby groups who push for smokers to be targeted, penalised, denormalised and treated like infants.

Kerching for SmokeFree South West and Tobacco Free Futures. Not so good for adults who want to be left alone to enjoy a legal product.
An Action on Smoking survey has revealed 80per cent of people would support plain packaging if there was evidence they are less attractive to children.
I assume this refers to the ASH survey that Simon Clark pulled apart with panache, and of course there is no evidnce at all that plain packs would make a difference to children smoking, it is just a heavily loaded question. What there is evidence of, is that plain packs would make fake cigarettes so much easier to produce which would in effect, increase childrens exposure to tobacco.

Shops and supermarkets as a rule, stay within the law and don't supply tobacco to children. Counterfieters abide by no laws and don't care who they sell to.
Burnley mum Emma Gardener said: “The less attractive they can make cigarette packets look to young people, then so much the better.
"Some of these packs look like they are designed to suggest it’s OK to smoke aged 14.”
"Look like they are designed to suggest"?? Give me a break. There's a successful career in tobacco control for this one.
“In public health terms, this policy change would be a landmark event.
Really? Then why not do it for heroin, smack, cocaine......

Oh...

6 Comments:

JuliaM said...

Bucko said...

Lucky Strike said...

Bucko said...

Angry Exile said...

Bucko said...