Do Lies (Upon Lies) Get Bigger Than This?

One of the most curious aspects of the stance of uber anti-smokers, ASH, is their continual insistence that the tobacco industry is infested with liars who are perpetually manipulating data to suit their own business ends. They may be correct, but it pales into insignificance when one considers the jaw-dropping, bare-faced, superlative lying which emanates from the nation's archetypal fake charity.

An article in tonight's Evening Standard highlights both Labour's insistence on only asking for guidance from those who are guaranteed to agree with them, as well as the quite staggering nonsense which is spouted as fact by the world class fanatical liars at ASH (paid for by your taxes, I might add).

The rancid paws of their lying cunt-in-chief head of policy, Martin Dockrell, look to be all over this latest putrid perversion of the political process.

A critical vote in the House of Lords is looming next week for small newsagents who are being seriously threatened by plans to prevent tobacco products going on display across Britain. Cigarettes would have to be sold from out of sight under the counter under new legislation.

The vote is due next Wednesday, and retailers are extremely upset. They say the move will damage their businesses — especially as it could cost £1500 to install a special gantry to store the products.

The Ministry of Health asked anti-smoking organisation ASH (which is hardly a disinterested party) to check on the cost, and it claimed the figure for the gantries was just £120. This figure was sent by health minister Lord Darzi to every member of the House of Lords.

When the supplier, 4 Solutions of Canada, heard about this, it pointed out the individual cost would be approximately £450 — and this did not include any of the installation costs, which would be around £1000. They also pointed out that the costs of the gantries for all the outlets in Britain could be over £30 million.

Neither ASH nor the Ministry of Health has corrected the information they have given to the members of the House of Lords in advance of the vote.

My local Tesco Express were measured up for their new display a couple of months ago. I know this as I was stocking up on filter tips while the consultant was employing all manner of infra-red gadgets, behind the counter, to estimate how big a display needed to be hidden, and jotting all the measurements on a surveyor's pad (while wearing a hi-viz jacket, natch). So there's £120 spunked up the 'power' wall already.

Any idiot with a brain will be able to work out that the £120 figure is farcical and could only be dreamt up by a single issue cunt with psychotic tendencies. By deduction then, Lord Darzi must be an idiot without a fucking brain.

By comparison, the accusations towards the tobacco industry on the very same subject are pretty hypocritical.

Britain's tobacco giants have been accused of 'dirty' tactics after it emerged they created a supposedly 'independent' campaign group for small retailers to lobby against government restrictions on the promotion of cigarettes in shops.

Laughingly, the Guardian chose to elicit reaction from ... groups created by the government to appear supposedly 'independent', to lobby for government restrictions.

Dr Janet Atherton, Chair of Smokefree North West, which works to tackle smoking among children and young people, said: 'Everyone had a right to be heard - nearly 60,000 members of the public in this region signed up for stronger measures. These people will feel a little cheated that the tobacco industry, when having its say, chose to do in such a misleading and dishonest way.'

Smokefree North West. Such an austere body. And funded by whom? Well, according to their communications officer, Vicky Mills, when I asked her ...

We are part funded by the Department of Health and part funded by all the PCTs in the NW.

So the government have set up bodies which are designed to appear independent, but which are entirely funded by themselves, to comment on how tobacco companies have done the same. And they acuse the tobacco companies of dirty tricks?

Fair enough, it's what we have come to expect from Labour. But did you notice the lie from them too? I did. Rewind a little.

Everyone had a right to be heard

Well, actually Janet, you lying tart, no they didn't. Only ones who agreed with the government did.

Ken Patel, Leicester retailer and National Spokesman for the Tobacco Retailers Alliance, said: "First the Minister refused to meet with retailers, now they have censored our formal response to a public consultation."

Campaign Manager Katherine Graham said; "We are not listed as one of the respondents although our response was submitted by email and also sent by post, so we can be certain it was received. For some reason the views of 25,000 shopkeepers just seem to have been air-brushed out of the consultation report."

In summation, we have a government who hide public consultations from those who may disagree, but use organisations funded by them to spread the word to those who will agree. If anyone proffers an opposing viewpoint, their input is omitted.

Then, having zig-zagged around the process of pretending that the electorate have had a say, the government ask for further evidence from a collection of lying cock-sockets who wouldn't be able to run an office if Labour didn't pay their overheads. When the truth is presented to them by experts who don't merely pull a figure out of their state-sponsored derrières, Lord Darzi ignores it entirely as it is deemed inconvenient.

Let's get this straight, and on record, right now. Martin Dockrell and ASH lie for a living. Lord Darzi has derelicted his duty, having perverted the course of democracy with his actions, and should be put against a tree and shot.

If the Lords vote for this bill to be passed next Wednesday, their doing so will be advocating the use of mendacity, self-lobbying, and the abandonment of any form of democracy or public accountability. But it won't be their fault, quite simply because they have been fed shit by a procession of disgusting affronts to decent society. ASH and their ilk shouldn't be attending receptions and press conferences talking about how others lie, they should be in front of a court being sentenced for their own desertion of the truth.

This issue doesn't personally affect me, I know exactly what I smoke, and I know exactly where to get it (abroad). What does affect me, though, and should make you angry too if you believe we are living in an equitable system, is that government in the form that we have to suffer under Labour, is not democratic in even the loosest sense. You may well agree with this particular measure, but you should be horrified at the way it is being bludgeoned through both houses.

If you aren't, I will ask you a couple of questions. Can you be certain that the same process isn't being used for every aspect of your life? And how much of what you believe is true are you certain not to be a state-peddled lie?

Think on.

UPDATE: Incredible that a Staffordshire Labour MP is sucking up the lies and vomiting them out. Shouldn't she be sorting out the mess of her local hospital, which despatches souls by the hundred, and which Alan Johnson accepted was a steaming pile of festering NHS effluence yesterday?

[Charlotte Atkins (Labour, Staffordshire Moorlands)] The evidence suggests that this measure would be manageable for small businesses in Staffordshire Moorlands because it could cost under £200 to refit a standard UK small retailer display.

Are all Labour MPs stupid?