The BBC, of course, did its best to pretend this was the government equivalent of a football referee missing the ball blatantly bouncing over the goal line, but it's been very clear from news comments sections, Twitter feeds and Facebook discussions that both these policies were not popular, were ridiculed by the public and were making politicians look even more stupid than they were viewed beforehand.
Of course, there were the usual nonsensical claims of double-headed industry execs with red horns mesmerising the government as they liberally tossed millions of £50 notes at lobbyists, but - like tantrum-throwing children - flinging insults and blaming just about everything and everyone for their misfortune is what the public health industry have always done. So no surprise there.
Jeremy Hunt threw a bone to the pack of slavering, threat-laden public health mongrels on plain packaging by quoting a selective stat.
“Of those who provided detailed feedback, some 53 percent were in favor of standardized packaging while 43 percent thought the government should do nothing about tobacco packaging,” Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said in a written statement to Parliament in London today.
Surprising that he should pick that one when the real story of the day was how roundly the plain packs policy was rejected. You see, the figure Hunt provided to parliament was restricted to those who took time to formally write in and answer the 15 questions the consultation asked. Just 2424 of them (see page 14 here). As you can imagine, a significant proportion of those will be state-funded bodies or individuals whose job it is to submit such stuff.
A more significant conclusion to take from that soundbite is that over 1,000 ordinary people were motivated enough about the subject to go through the purposely onerous rigmarole of finding the consultation buried at the DoH website, and ploughing through it to formally register objection, many of whom - I am incredibly proud to say - fellow jewel robbers who forwarded their efforts my way by e-mail (I still have a folder full of 'em).
A more significant conclusion to take from that soundbite is that over 1,000 ordinary people were motivated enough about the subject to go through the purposely onerous rigmarole of finding the consultation buried at the DoH website, and ploughing through it to formally register objection, many of whom - I am incredibly proud to say - fellow jewel robbers who forwarded their efforts my way by e-mail (I still have a folder full of 'em).
But that wasn't the whole story by any means. There were 665,989 responses in total (page 31) and this is how the overall picture looks.
No amount of blaming Lynton Crosby or tobacco companies for putting pressure on politicians can hide the undeniable fact that the public - you know, those people a democracy is supposed to listen to - are behind this correct decision by a factor of two to one. It's that simple.
The tobacco control industry should take some of the same medicine they've been spooning out for years ... get over it, move on, the public have spoken.
In the meantime, it's Friday, the sun is out, and the health Nazis have received a well deserved smack in the chops. Crack open a bottle of your fave tipple, spark up a cigar and party like it's Friday 12th July!
In the meantime, it's Friday, the sun is out, and the health Nazis have received a well deserved smack in the chops. Crack open a bottle of your fave tipple, spark up a cigar and party like it's Friday 12th July!
