Wednesday 22 July 2015

Allez Les Buralistes Français!

This Monday in Paris, the French health minister hosted her counterparts from 9 other countries - including, to our shame, the UK - to discuss how to implement utterly pointless plain packaging.
Ministers discussed the effect of advertising and promotion of tobacco products, especially concerning the design of tobacco packages and products.They acknowledged that significant scientific evidence exists to justify the introduction of standardized packaging.
That's rot, of course, there is no evidence worthy of the name, let alone anything 'significant'. It is, however, pretty clear that French retailers - who, as is always the case with tyrannical governments, have been ignored - will be affected by the measure in a free trading bloc like the EU.

The attitude of 'public health' is quite disgraceful when it comes to plain packs, especially. They declare openly that no economic factor should ever be taken into account; that only health should ever be considered, however flimsy their cock-eyed junk science is. And, with plain packs, cock-eyed junk science is about all they've got (see here, here, here, here and here).

So French tobacconists have today caused one hell of a scene in Paris, as the Guardian reports.
Angry French tobacconists have dumped four tonnes of carrots outside the ruling Socialist party’s headquarters in Paris in protest at plans to force the introduction of plain cigarette packets.
And they filmed it.


This is after a week of general civil disobedience throughout France.
France’s tobacconists are protesting against plans to force cigarette companies to use plain, unbranded packaging by disabling traffic speed cameras. 
The radar “hooding” – by covering them with bin liners – is symbolic: a “cover up” that deprives the government of money in the same way that the anti-smoking legislation will reduce tobacco sales and tax revenue, the protesters say. 
The first hooding took place over a month ago and, by this week, speed trap cameras in as many as 20 of 97 districts had been affected, said the group representing France’s tabac bars, the Buralistes Confederation. 
“It’s a sign that anger is mounting,” a spokesman said.
They weren't finished after the carrot stunt either ...
After dumping the vegetables against the gates of the party headquarters at Rue de Solférino at 6.30am, the tobacconists marched to the health ministry en route to the Sénat.
Indeed they did, making a real fuss, and mess, with a 4 million signature petition against plain packaging.




It has certainly got their concerns noticed. The French Senate has discussed the idea and decided to reject it, preferring to stick to the EU TPD proposals for larger health warnings instead. Unlike, sadly, our allegedly EU-suspicious Tory government which has gold-plated the demands from Brussels instead of treating them with healthy disdain.

I'm sure that's not the end of the matter, puritans never like losing and will certainly never listen to the people whose lives they destroy, but today is a good day for common sense and decency in France.


As the demands from insane public health lobbyists become ever more absurd - not just over tobacco, either - we're hopefully going to see a lot more of this type of direct action. Good, I'm all for it.

Les buralistes Français, vous avez bien fait aujourd'hui. Bravo!


13 comments:

What the.... said...

DP, I have a comment that has gotten caught somewhere in the system.
Thanks.

What the.... said...

“Perhaps anonymous can point to any law (or legal
theory) that allows someone (or groups of people) to involuntarily force something harmful into another human being (without that person's consent).”


Bill, from my comments above, you seem to have never
considered that the “harm” you speak of regarding smoke is coming from you, either physically or psychologically. Your system is not doing what a normally functioning system can do. It’s therefore up to you to avoid, as best you can,
situations you can’t handle. Public policy is usually anchored to a normative range of functioning, not abnormalities, although contemporary Public Health has been anchoring policy to abnormality, a very sickly thing to do. If we ban
things based on what people with abnormalities can’t handle, we would have the majority of the population which is normally functioning forced to conduct themselves as if they have multiple abnormalities. It’s a recipe for social
implosion.

Further, you may want to look into some basic chemistry. You’ll find that tobacco smoke isn’t too different to air generally.

Randall said...

Hello Dick, I'm not sure (c'est une "litote") that french vapers support the tobacconist lobby...
Anyhow, bravo pour le français (with the "c cédille") !

Dick_Puddlecote said...

Merci bien. Mais pourquoi ne pas les soutenir? Il est de votre avenir si 'public health' ne sont pas arrêtés.

Vinny Gracchus said...

Hopefully this is the start of a global movement to push back on tobacco control, including plain packages, smoking bans, and excessive taxes. The next frontier in smoking bans should be their repeal.

Dick_Puddlecote said...

So can you explain why smokefree laws are required for somewhere which has, always will be, and has always described itself as being, a cigar bar?


That is nothing more than bullying by tobacco control. It is entirely unnecessary.


Talk to the majority and they will tell you that a system of smoking and non-smoking establishments is perfectly acceptable. TCI's insistence on having not only EVERY pub, bar and restaurant, but also the outside of them, social housing, and parks, beaches and even the North bloody Pole, is why they should never be taken seriously.


This, for a threat which is inconsequential at best, and fundamentally fraudulent at worst INSIDE. Outside it is non-existent.


It's a cult, it needs to be curtailed hugely and people should be in prison for the damage they have done on the economy and society in general. The assault on e-cigs and THR in general stems exclusively from this appalling deception.


In the UK, they are now talking about outdoor smoking bans for prisons where over 80% of inmates smoke, and also for mental health institutions where I'd say a blanket ban (indoors and outdoors) is nothing else but legalised torture.


If one prisoner punches a prison warden in the face, the UK govt will be responsible for more harm than prisoners smoking have ever inflicted in the history of the penal system. If just one mental health patient self harms because of tobacco controllers, the same applies.


I will concede that a market has a place for non-smoking facilities, and even reluctantly that it might require legislation to support those who wish to provide it (seeing as prior to bans the smart money was on the majority who really don't find it an issue). I will, however, never accept that it is right that every single pub, bar and restaurant should be entirely smokefree and under the threat of eye-watering fines, policed not by the state but by the property owner. Especially since tobacco control actively sprints away from any hint of technological solutions such as ventilation and - in the case of vending machines - credit card or biometric ID systems. Again, the same could be said for TCI's rdiculous rejection of vaping as a techno solution. It's a crock.


Sorry, but 100% smoking bans are indefensible and have led to the morass of ignorance and panic over THR. You can't defend one while supporting the other.

What the.... said...

Beautifully put, DP. Inspired.

What the.... said...

1.

With all due respect, Bill, there’s a critical problem with what you’ve just said. As is the case with antismokers, they typically disregard their own involvement in their problem, having a back-to-front version of causation.

I can accept that there are some, a very, very small group – a rarity, that cannot handle smoke given their physical constitution. But that’s where their problem is – with their physical constitution. Most people, a normative range, have no problem with smoke. They don’t get headaches or anything else. So it’s you who is carrying some abnormality. Your system can’t do what a normally functioning system can do. And that’s if your problem is physical. But, you’ll note that you depict your headaches as “caused” by smoke as if this a general propensity of smoke. It’s not. It’s your system that’s the problem.

A few decades of antismoking hysteria promoted as “science” has opened another Pandora’s Box of psychosomatic problems, an issue of mental
health. Given that there’s a gullible portion of the population that absorbs the inflammatory propaganda, they are now suffering anxiety disorders, hypochondria, somatization. There are now those that walk about with hand cupped over mouth fearing that a whiff of smoke will drop them dead on the spot. There are others that believe that they’re “allergic” to tobacco smoke. Yet there are no allergens (proteins) in tobacco smoke to be allergic to. People waving their hands, hand cupped over mouth, “oh I can’t handle the smoke”, etc, were unheard of a few decades ago. It’s a recent phenomenon that’s been produced by the nut cases of Public Health.

What the.... said...

2.

We have people that have no problem sitting at a restaurant dining table with lit candles atop. They have no problem sitting next to an open indoor fire place. They have no problem with the smoke coming from the restaurant kitchen. Yet if someone lights a cigarette, in come the headache, the sweats, and the histrionics. That sounds like an anxiety disorder where they’ve come to believe that cigarette smoke is incredibly different to other forms of typically encountered smoke and aligned with fear.

People with anxiety disorders experience actual physical symptoms such as headache, dizziness, chest palpitations, dry throat, nausea. But these physical symptoms are psychogenic, i.e., they are psychologically mediated, usually through irrational belief. So someone who’s been manipulated into
capnophobia (smokephobia) around smoke will start sweating, feel nausea, etc, and they’re convinced that it’s being caused by the smoke. It isn’t. It’s being
caused by their irrational beliefs about smoke that have been fostered by State-sponsored prohibitionists posing as “health advocates”.

So, my conclusion would be that most people that have problems with smoke have a psychological issue(s). It’s something that such people don’t like hearing because they usually haven’t spent too much time examining and scrutinizing what goes on in their minds and especially when the disorder is depicted as normal. To such people I’d say it’s time to look within. Let go of anger; let go of condemning thoughts; let go of obsessions with control; let go of attack thoughts. That‘s a start. It takes some work
particularly when we’ve never applied ourselves to the task. Clear your mind of the clutter and fear (and the physical symptoms of fear) typically drops away
as well.

moonrakin said...

Unusual.... but there it is....

The Daily Mail of all places running a health scare story with closed comments - who'dah thunk it eh?

Wonder what its about....

Do go take a look......

RooBeeDoo said...

Vapers should have expected this. When the science behind Tobacco Control is junk, then it is junk. Taking that 'science' to trample all over smokers in order to be accepted by the Establishment has led them into a cul de sac. Personally, I hope they get out of their predicament. I just hope they're don't trample all over smokers again in the attempt.

moonrakin said...

It's the imposition, using "evidence" generated by cnuts whose sole aim in life is to hollow out public funds to feed their specialty - and that specialty increasing is being seen to be lies, conflation and BS - dressed up a "science". Arguments from authority dotting the Ts and crossing the Is along the way.


The absence of just rewards for these gits and their apparently unrestrained access to your taxes have to be addressed - they will not stop at 'baccy as we can see at the moment - almost anything can be deemed unhealthy and in need of regulation and continuous investigation by these parasites. .

gray cooper said...

Politicians are making themselves redundant because of their attitudes to what is termed "public health".