Thursday 22 November 2012

It's A Miracle!

We've come to accept that if someone from the tobacco control industry writes or speaks it's most likely bollocks, but their eagerness to make stuff up seems to be getting the better of them.
According to Smokefree Action’s study, the number of smokers has been greatly reduced in other countries through introducing plain packaging ...
And how did they collect the data for this study? Through a crystal ball? Do they have a Tardis?

Not one other country has mandated plain packaging except Australia, and even their regulations only kick in on December 1st. Yet Smokefree Action are claiming a "greatly reduced" number of smokers in countries (plural) before plain packaging has even been tried.

These people are truly miraculous, perhaps we are witnessing the second coming of the Messiah here. I mean, how else can one explain such awesome Mystic Meg-esque knowledge?

The local MP is very impressed, so he is.
Mr [Rob] Wilson said: “These statistics are extremely heartening ...
Not to mention impossible.
... and I hope that the trend of being ahead of the national average continues in the future.
Forget about something as irrelevant as being ahead of the game on smoking prevalence, Rob. If those statistics are true, the United Kingdom has just scooped the entire planet and invented time travel, or an indisputable method of predicting events which haven't yet occurred.

It's the most stunning scientific advancement of the past couple of centuries!

Rob Wilson, for your information, is a Conservative.


11 comments:

Tom said...

"Rob Wilson, for your information, is a Conservative."


Funny, it was Labour's fake-liberalism and vile, spiteful, hatefulness that brought the anti-smoking-industry to power and with it the wealth destroying and life sucking consequences of the smoking ban, worst thing since US prohibition.


Then it's the fake-conservatives turn, once the fake-libs set things up, to roll over and remain brain-damaged stupid, unable to discern a contradiction and fall for the fake-lib inspired propaganda - thus offering NO alternatives at all - just more of the same.


So fake-libs get the ball rolling on these sorts of things - then stupid fake-conservatives carry on unquestioningly - make an arse out of both of them.


I think the so-called conservatives are living in the same bubble the fake-libs have been living in, where reality is an illusion and propaganda is the truth.

Bucko TheMoose said...

OMG! Plain packs works! Somebody local should write to that MP and 'ave a word.

SteveW said...

It's just a clerical error, that statement wasn't due to be released for another 6 months. They really are shameless.

Dave said...

Rob Wilson MP
Member of Parliament for Reading East
House of Commons
London, SW1A 0AA
robwilsonmp@parliament.uk
Tel. 020 7219 2498 (Secretary – Michelle Bass)
Fax 020 7219 0847
Constituency tel. 0118 375 9785


If you are a Reading East constituent, please ensure that you have included your
full name and address. No emails will be answered without full address and contact
details.

I receive a large number of emails, letters and phone calls each day but I will aim
to respond to your message quickly.

I aim to respond to all emails and letters within 14 days, so if you have not
received a reply by then please do not hesitate to contact the office with a
reminder.

Many thanks for taking the time to write to me.

Kind regards

Rob Wilson

Ben said...

Hmm, you *may* be doing Mr Wilson a disservice here. That article reads very much like someone from the paper rang him up, asked a number of separate questions - then combined the answers.

It *could* be read as his comments referring to the low level of smoking and cancer stats - which I can't really fault too much. Welcoming the effects of plain packaging from a crystal ball could then be an answer to a different question - probably on the lines of 'Given the evidence that.... blah.... Do you think this is a good thing?' (possibly even a simple yes/no answer)

On t'other hand I could be taking devil's advocate too far.

The one line that jumped out at me was: "low level of smokers aged between 10 and 14 in Reading, which is well
below the national average at just 70 for the whole of the borough.".

Really? 70 smokers between 10 and 14? a 30 second look at edubase shows that there's something like six and a half thousand secondary students (which is 11-18, still gives a guess) in reading. Assume that a couple of thousand of those are 15 plus.

That's less than 2%. Which... seems incredibly low

Dick_Puddlecote said...

I think politicians abandoned truth, proportionality and sense a long time ago.

Dick_Puddlecote said...

Reminds me of a guy who eventually claimed on insurance for a new house as his irretrievably knackered one was destroyed. His mate said "sorry to hear about that fire you had, Bert", "Shh", he replied "that's not till next week". ;)

Dick_Puddlecote said...

No, not taking Devil's Advocate too far, and probably correct. It's quite blase how MPs are happy to have their quotations associated with absolute garbage though, eh?

Stephen Brown said...

If Mr. Wilson has been misquoted I would like to see his response. I have emailed both this article and the 'GetReading' article to him.
Let's wait and see.


*goes to attend to more important stuff*

Tony said...

Astonishing, but not as astonishing as all the gullible people out there who trust these plebs and vote for them every election cycle. They really do think we're all stupid.

Ivan_Denisovich said...

It does look like the Right Honorable Member was stitched up into commenting on some lung cancer data on the basis that it is hard not to say something nice when you hear good stats about a nasty disease.



It looks to me like the lung cancer numbers were a convenient hook on which the tobacco control loonies could hang a plug for plain packaging. Sickening on their part and obviously dishonest but Rob Wilson should respond and offer a reasonable explanation as to why he appeared to endorse a blatant lie.