+++ Breaking News +++ Advocate Produces Exactly The Conclusion He Was Paid For!

There's been a flurry of activity on Twitter, with anti-smokers clambering over themselves in an ecstatic frenzy to tweet this little nugget, as ASH Wales have done.

Tobacco industry claims that plain packaging will increase illicit trade are nonsense according to new report bit.ly/SkDTRZ
— ASH Wales(@ASHWalesCymru) November 26, 2012

Oh noes, the Hands Off Our Packs campaign is busted now guvnor, and no mistake!

So who is behind this holy grail of a report? Who is the unimpeachable 'international expert' they have found to trump the views of a vast array of law enforcement professionals with hands-on experience of the illicit tobacco trade?

Why, it's a Belgian named Luk Joossens. A guy as impartial as they come.

"Luk Joossens has been one of the world’s foremost tobacco control advocates for almost 30 years ... a relentless activist, and a versatile leader in the international tobacco control movement. "

Nope, no conflict of interest there at all.

Wanna know what he looks like? Well, here he is (pictured centre) at the COP5 anti-smoking shebang in Korea earlier this month ...

Pic from that nice Geoffrey Fong

... having a cosy chat with Deborah Arnott, also of ASH.

And they expect us to take his report seriously? Christ on a bike, I reckon they might have have been smoking too much!

See also today's inspired Daily Mash article, by the way. It's a must-read.