It's An Open And Shut Case, Amigos

Mexico has posed a question [pdf] to Australia regarding their tobacco plain packaging law.

Mexico invites the Australian authorities to ... Provide the scientific information available in which Australia determined that plain packaging influences consumer behavior, which will contribute to reduce smoking rates

Ooh, ooh, please Sir! I know the answer!

Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon admits there is no proof plain cigarette packaging will cut smoking rates.

"This is a world first," she told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday.

Ms Roxon was responding to her opposition counterpart Peter Dutton, who earlier called for evidence showing plain packaging encourages people to butt out.

"The sort of proof they are looking for doesn't exist when this hasn't been introduced around the world," Ms Roxon said.

Well, that's pretty clear cut. A classic case of policy-based, non-evidential law-making.

Unfortunately, this kind of thinking is a disease - some may even call it a global epidemic - affecting the brains of politicians in otherwise sane nations (and Scotland). It's not about health, you know. Just pure, unadulterated prejudice and spite.

Now is a timely opportunity, then, to remind you that there are just a few days left in which to tell Andrew Lansley that the country which devised the parliamentary system should be setting an example here. Just because a load of dustbowl-dwellers at the arse end of the world want to dispense with scrupulous legislative process in favour of ideological fuckwittery, it doesn't mean that we should do the same.

It has been a lot of fun trouncing the no-marks in the Olympics (err, how's that humiliating losing bet looking Australia? Again?), so let's also thrash the pants off them at running a country with some degree of competence, eh?

Sign up here to give Lansley a quick nudge or submit something more substantial here by August 10th (a preview of the questions is here).

UPDATE: Looks like Roxon hasn't changed her mind since her last admission of the futility of plain packaging.

Plain packaging isn't going to see cigarette sales drop off any time soon, former federal health minister Nicola Roxon says.

"We've been very clear - we haven't made any estimates about the level of reduction that will flow from plain packaging," she told Sky News on Sunday.

Still an open and shut case then, Mexico. There quite simply cannot be any evidence, so crack on.

Top Class Jewel Robbing Spotted In Bury

I've lost count of the number of times I've mentioned how irritating e-cigs are to tobacco control industry freaks (latest example here), and therefore how delightful they are.

It was excellent news, then, to find out that one of this blog's long-time readers - and regular e-mailer - has opened up a brand new shop in Bury selling kits and other vaping paraphernalia. Pretty smart it looks too, I reckon.



What's more, our fellow jewel robber has a special offer for readers here that might be of interest if you're in the area. Ask for Steve and mention this blog and you will get 25% off ... everything!

I'm nowhere near the place sadly but, if it's around your part of the world, why not pop in and give him some of your business or just say hello and offer a handshake and encouragement if e-cigs aren't your particular bag. I can vouch for his sound anti-bansturbator credentials, that's for sure.

You can find him at 133 Rochdale Road, Bury, BL9 7BA.

By the way, unlike tobacco controllers who won't do anything without being paid, I have no monetary interest in posting this up here. Just the thought that the shop might get some purse-lipped harridan, somewhere, even more screwed-up inside than they already are is reward enough for me.

God speed the Vaporium, I say. May it further rot the soul of every joyless, hag-faced crone in the surrounding area for a long time to come. Huzzah!

How Very Civilised

Frankfurt airport, and its passengers, have just received a new gift.

Frankfurt Airport has opened its first fully enclosed and ventilated smoking lounge in partnership with Japan Tobacco International.

"The new smoker lounges will improve the range of services offered by Frankfurt Airport and thus make it more attractive for all passengers," said Fraport Group.

Looks nice, doesn't it?


Imagine that, eh? Millions of taxpaying citizens being treated as equally deserving of respect as anyone else.

Shame our own authorities would rather stab their Grandmother than countenance affording comfort to people who pay their wages.

Link Tank 04/08

Token Olympics story edition.

The opening ceremony's message: Conform or risk being cast out of polite society

Cigarette consumption down in the US, but cigar and pipe tobacco soaring

Bolivia threatens to ban Coca-Cola ...

... While in Chile, McDonald's, Burger King and KFC are ignoring a ban on toys in kids' meals

US 'breastaurant' chain Hooters aims to attract more women customers

Thank the humble wasp for your glass of wine

Pentagon missile defence staff told to stop watching porn

Women banned from a German waterslide to avoid 'intimate injuries'

Qantas: The longest customer service call waiting time in history?

Iranian monkey astronaut

My Kind Of Olympian

Squirrelled away in the BBC's coverage of the Olympics Gold-fest yesterday was this class quote.

Asked how he's going to celebrate after winning gold in the double trap, Britain's Peter Wilson responds: "I'm going to get very, very drunk and probably do something silly." Sweden's silver medallists Hakan Dahlby asks if it'll be a free bar at the pub where Wilson used to work at back in 2009 and the 25-year-old says he hopes so.

He's only young, so I'm sure such refreshing honesty will be beaten out of him before Rio in 2016. He should, of course, be thinking of the children.

It's not been a very good couple of days for the righteous. Bradley Wiggins was 'at it' too just the day before.

That's the Olympic spirit, lads!

Plain Packaging For Alcohol Is On Its Way

Such an epic failure was Deborah Arnott's denial of a potential domino effect from plain packaging of tobacco, that I'm almost getting bored with ragging on it. Almost.

Too numerous to dig up yet again in detail, you can view some of the many ways in which she has already been embarrassed linked to this article.

Just to remind you, this is how her naive idiocy went:

"[...] The “domino theory” i.e. that once a measure has been applied to tobacco it will be applied to other products is patently false. The same argument was used against the ban on tobacco advertising, but 9 years after the tobacco ban in the UK, alcohol advertising is still permitted with no sign of it being prohibited."

A good joke is always worth seeing again, I say.

Anyway, via Snowdon's link to the list of those who responded to the House of Commons Health Select Committee's consultation on the government's alcohol strategy, we now have our first repeat Debs rubbisher.

Anti-alcohol champions, Balance North East, have previously humiliated Debs and her outdated grasp of reality via the medium of YouTube. They now do so in front of MPs.

9.4 Plain packaging and marketing bans:

9.4.1 Research shows children are drawn to brands with appealing packaging which is why packaging is used as a seductive marketing tool. Studies show that the younger people start drinking, the more likely they are to develop alcohol problems later in life.

Yep, I think that makes it clear that plain packaging of alcohol is squarely in their sights.

However, we believe that the greatest evidence for action on marketing currently lies elsewhere and we should start by introducing advertising restrictions similar to those found in France. We also believe this would receive greater public support.

I don't think you need me to translate that for you.

They love the idea of plain packaging for alcohol; fully support it; and will go for that as soon as the public have been softened up. A total advertising ban will do for now, though. Well, it's a 'start', isn't it?

You see, any self-enriching professional is hardly going to put themselves out of a job by not advocating for the 'next logical step' once their current goal is achieved, are they?

That way unemployment lies.

Kentucky Fried Brain +Updated+

I've written many times before about how the tobacco control industry has been hopelessly ambushed by e-cigs and snus and - as a result - are actively harming the public, aided and abetted by irresponsible morons within the EU.

Via SteveVape, though, comes a jaw-dropping example of someone who has acted above and beyond the call of duty to make absolutely sure that people shun any alternative to tobacco.

Just read this hideous fucking lunacy from an indoctrinated health nut in full-on, ill-informed, weapons grade arsehole mode. Not since Jane "hideous and proud of it" DeVille-Almond have we seen anyone so deserving of roasting on a pitchfork.

UK letter

I mean, what kind of disgraceful individual goes out of their way to write in protest to a private business - accommodating people who voluntarily attend - in an attempt to forbid them using a product which is not only not banned, but also hugely less dangerous than the alternative her actions could have them return to?

You'll note that this appalling waste of DNA uses the scare tactic of smokefree legislation to try to bully the venue's owners from exercising their own free will, as well as the choices of those who wish to attend. Despite there being no legal barrier and no likelihood of her personally appearing anywhere near the place.

Her supporting references - designed solely to scare the venue into cancelling the event - have been so deliberately twisted and taken out of context that she can be accurately described as a lying bitch.

It's the anti-tobacco finger-wagging exercise in microcosm. She doesn't approve, so she will do her damnedest to make sure others will have their enjoyment denied even if it means they might be massively helping their health rather than harming it. It's the profoundly evil nature of tobacco-haters laid ruthlessly bare.

There is no further useful role for tobacco control if this is the kind of disgusting and dangerous bastard they are now producing.

UPDATE: Mike Siegel calls her out for talking bollocks too, and highlights a video where she spouts utter garbage.

What a nasty piece of confused work she is.