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Hands Off Our Packs is supported by adults from all walks of life. They include smokers and non-smokers who are sick of being patronised by the tobacco control industry.
Campaign Blog
Brian Monteith: Protect our kids from nasty politicians
The Nasty Party hasn't gone away, it's just wearing different shoes
So there we have it. The Coalition Government “is minded” to introduce standardised packaging of cigarettes (and other tobacco products) before the end of this Parliament. This means the draft regulations will be published this month, probably by the end of April, with a short consultation period to start at the same time.
Be under no illusions, the consultation will be about technicalities and ways to ameliorate the unintended (but very self-evident) consequences that restrictions on the packaging of tobacco products will bring – especially the expected increase in counterfeit and contraband sales. It is to show that a careful and studied approach has been made so that future legal challenges will have less chance of success.
If there is anyone out there still believing that this government will not have passed legislation for standardised packaging before the next general election then I can only presume they are the type of people that blame Israel for the Twin Towers atrocity (conspiracists), that there is a Loch Ness monster (delusional) and that the moon is made of blue cheese (barking).
This latest ban is not about saving children, it’s about pretending to be saving children. And it is a ban; a ban on the freedom of tobacco manufacturers to package their own legal products in a way they see fit so as to differentiate themselves from their competition, what we call intellectual property rights.
It is being introduced by a Conservative-led coalition with a Conservative Secretary of State for Health and a Conservative Minister for Public Health, when it was never advocated by them prior to the 2010 general election, only because it provides a tool to say, “Look, we are not the Nasty Party! We care about children and are bringing in a law to protect children’s’ health”.
Outmanoeuvred a couple of months ago by the Labour Party (which itself had never previously advocated standardised restricted packaging) the government was in danger – in its own collective mind – of appearing callous, cruel and uncaring. It had to do something to show it cared about the children that it is not Nasty. The great plan of Tories legislating for equal marriage (in an especially tortuous and convoluted way that managed to divide even those that favoured equality) so that the Nasty Party could at last be put to bed and forgotten – had failed. The botched attempt at austerity had seen to that, as had the alleged insensitivity of some of its welfare reforms.
There is always another minority politicians needing to be seen to care about – and what could be worse than looking uncaring towards children? A plan was needed – and with Labour about to gazzump the government by being more anti-tobacco for smoking (in front of the kids) in the car, or in how its sold (in front of the kids) the best response was to take up Labour’s policies as if it were its own. Ingenious.
Except it will not save the children.
Appointing a leading paediatrician to produce a report to a very narrow brief was a self-fulfilling prophecy and we all knew it. Nevertheless, full marks to Jacob Rees Mogg MP for reading the report before asking the Minister his question and pulling out the fact that Sir Cyril Chantler admits the evidence about reductions in child take-up of smoking is “speculative”.
It is already illegal to buy cigarettes under the age of eighteen or have them bought for you if you are under the age of eighteen – and it is illegal to smoke them in public under the age of sixteen. Children, by definition people under those age groups, are, by smoking, choosing to get round the law. They are already protected but they have no wish to receive the state’s protection. They want to be free to behave as adults and no amount of repackaging of cigarettes will stop them.
As Christopher Chope pointed out, unbranded packaging has not stopped young people seeking out and purchasing Class A drugs – a point the Minister could not answer.
What we know is that the route we are travelling down is feeding illicit trade. If procuring cigarettes is already illegal and seeing them behind the tobacconists counter is illegal how on earth is repackaging them going to reduce the illegal uptake by young people? More likely is that illicit trade will become easier, going on out of site, in the hands of criminals who will be providing tobacco products that are less safe – and with greater loss to the Treasury (and thus the NHS).
Our children will not be safer but they will become progressively more criminalised.
How’s that a victory for our children?
The Nasty Party has not gone away, it is just wearing different shoes, not kitten heels, but jackboots.
Brian Monteith is editor of The Free Society which is owned and managed by Forest
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Our Supporters
In 2012 the Government held a 16-week public consultation on whether the UK should adopt standardised (or 'plain') packaging for tobacco products. The consultation received over 665,000 responses, with a substantial majority (427,888) opposed to standard packs. In 2014 the Government conducted a further six-week consultation on the regulations for plain packaging. Together the Prime Minister and the Department of Health received a further 150,000 responses (via the Hands Off Our Packs campaign) opposing plain packs. In September the Government informed the EU it had yet to make a decision on the issue. To inform your MP of your opposition to plain packs and request they forward your views to the relevant ministers, please visit our LAST CHANCE SALOON microsite NOW! To receive updates about our campaign please enter your details below.
