Have The Tories Backed Down To Ken Clarke ?

[modeller]

Ken Clarke and Imperial Tobacco win the day. Tories will not ban attractive labelling on cigarette packaging.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-23281804

[missnemesis]

Yes, yes they have but then it's not really a surprise is it?

[jake-the-peg]

Just like they backed down against the payday loan companies until the EU gave them a kick.

The Tories will always back big business over the consumer, whereas the EU have a consistant history of backing consumer's interests over big businesses.

That's why the Newspaper barons and half the Tory party hate them.

It'll come through from Brussells at some point and there will be a wail of outrage

[bibblebub]

And they've also given up on minimum pricing on alcohol despite Cameron's personal promises.

[modeller]

I've just been watching the On Line buying Cigarettes Images .
Wow ! They do make them appealing . I'm not surprised the companies don't want a ban. Cameron has gone down another 10 notches in my book and he was already on -50.


https://www.google.co.uk/search?gs_rn=19&gs_ri=psy-ab&tok=iAnyxA-6pz_Gmla5kkTrBw&cp=9&gs_id=10&xhr=t&q=buying+cigarettes+online&safe=active&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.48705608,d.d2k&;biw=891&bih=664&wrapid=tljp1373638575440016&;um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=uw_gUficMamO0AWM4IHQDg

[Quizmonster]

Two u-turns in one day...have they reached 50 yet?

[mikey4444]

This is a disgusting act, by a government that shows it can be bought for a few pieces of silver. The tobacco industry needs to recruit millions of children every year to replace the adults that die of smoking related diseases.

I repeat, a disgusting and cowardly act, and they deserve nothing but scorn.

[sandyRoe]

Don't the brewers make substantial donations to Tory funds?

[craft1948]

Would the attractive packaging be similar to the one on my 20 Superkings which shows someone laid out in a mortuary with the words 'Smokers die younger' on it?

[mikey4444]

Craft1948. With the greatest respect, :::

A..... Why do you smoke if the picture is so horrific ?
B..... How are we going to stop children from taking up smoking ?

[naomi24]

With pictures of damaged lungs and throat tumours, I see nothing attractive in the labelling.

[Bazile]

//.. How are we going to stop children from taking up smoking ? //

Ban smoking

[ABerrant]

"It'll come through from Brussells at some point and there will be a wail of outrage"

Is this the same Brussels that also this week rejected the inclusion of plain packaging in its revision of the Tobacco Products Directive due in 2014?

http://ipkitten.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/todays-european-parliament-health.html

The same Brussels where European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy John Dalli (whose brief included the Tobacco Products Directive revision) resigned last year because of a tobacco lobbying scandal?

http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-12-788_en.htm

The UK position currently mirrors exactly the EC position of analysing the results of the Australian experience in this area before making an informed decision on the effectiveness of plain packaging.

[mikey4444]

Stop press ! It would seem that we have more b*lls on our side of the Severn Bridge !

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-23291737

[FredPuli43]

You can't see the packets in large supermarkets now and soon won't in any shop. How does the packaging persuade someone to smoke? It may persuade them to buy one brand rather than another, as a matter of image.

What stops smoking is that people don't smoke. It will go the way of snuff, spats,men wearing hats, and Pimms No 4; it will not be the done thing.

[mikey4444]

Nobody would like to see smoking banned more than me but it just isn't practical. The Police can't stop millions of drivers speeding on our roads each year...they can't seem to do anything about the spread of drugs in our vulnerable communities. What chance would they have of policing a ban on cigarettes ?

What we can do is to make the lives of the tobacco companies as difficult as possible. In a democracy like Britain, we have the ability to make some real changes, and this Tory government is ducking out of their responsibility. They were elected to represent us, not the tobacco industry.

The argument that packaging doesn't encourage new people to smoke, it just influences brand loyalty is stupid and fatuous. If we can remember back a few years, it was this same argument put forward by the companies when they were trying to stop tobacco advertisements. It isn't so long ago that every newsagent and corner shop in Britain had a huge illuminated over its doorway advertising Regal or Embassy, etc. You would have had to be blind not to have seen these huge inducements to smoke.

I can remember as a boy being given a JPS Special toy racing car...an advert in any other name. No doubt FOREST, the lobby organisation for the tobacco barons will be putting their oar into the affair. FOREST is paid for by the tobacco companies.

The tobacco companies have their backs to the wall, at least in the Western world. It wasn't so long ago that their paid lobbyists were still appearing on serious discussion programs on the TV, arguing that there wasn't a link between smoking and lung cancer. Amazing but true !

[FredPuli43]

There's a big difference between an advert and a packet, mikey. The first is an attempt to persuade people to smoke and buy the particular brand because it is glamorous or manly or whatever. A packet is just a packet; it doesn't lure people into the shop to buy it. Do you buy some brand of cornflakes or whisky or any product because you think it has a prettier or more attractive box or bottle than the brand next to it? The advert will show the box or bottle but that's only so you can identify it easily on the shelf; you may not remember the brand, but you know the packaging because you've seen the advert