But, there has been a consultation on the same hideous policy in New Zealand too, if you remember. It was run on carbon copy lines to ours but there were early signs that things might not be going to plan there either.
A month after consultation on its plain packaging regime for cigarettes closed, the Ministry of Health will not say how many submissions it received.
The government has agreed in principle to introduce plain packaging laws for tobacco products, subject to the outcome of a consultation process.
Yet the October 5 deadline for submissions passed unannounced, suggesting the number received in opposition could be huge.That was four months ago, but here's the latest news from government owned national broadcaster TV New Zealand.
Indeed, this is so. The NZ government has just revealed that - despite a state-funded campaign in favour - responses received on the spiteful idea were almost 60% against.
The TVNZ reporter seems to think we should be surprised by this. I mean, doesn't everyone know by now that if any policy bashes smokers it is a good thing?
He also mentions something else which is quite revealing.
He also mentions something else which is quite revealing.
"The association representing convenience retailers [claim] some of those submissions supporting plain packaging were made multiple times by the same person"
Hmm, sounds familiar. I believe we saw the same principle with the UK consultation, didn't we?
"You can only vote once on each petition, but I would seriously doubt that there will be cross checking between charity petitions so it may be worth signing all of them to get your money's worth"
So, perhaps it wasn't only the UK template for campaigning they copied, then.
