Mind-blowing Cheek Of The EU

I’ve trekked out to Geneva to catch the last knockings of the latest WHO anti-tobacco shit show that is COP8 (see COP6 and COP7 tags in the sidebar for previous tobacco control codswallop) but I just had to share this incredible hypocrisy from the EU.

Despite all of our intl efforts, tobacco still kills more than 7 million people each year. That is the entire population of Bulgaria! @EU_Health Director General Bucher will attend today the #COP8FCTC in #Geneva to underline the EU's commitment to tobacco control. @FCTCofficial https://t.co/ePUGp50dVI

— EU at UN in Geneva (@EU_UNGeneva) October 1, 2018

And attend she did. Bucher is new to the job and it showed, her very first contribution to stopping those 7 million deaths was to advocate a global ban on advertising of e-cigs and to classify them as tobacco products subject to the same restrictions as smoking.

Anne Bucher, director general of @EU_Health, says all vaping and e-cigarette devices ARE tobacco products. No nuance, no difference in the eyes of the global public health regulators between your vape pen and your cigar. That’s where we are. #COP8FCTC pic.twitter.com/H1JCbod1kh

— Yaël Ossowski (@YaelOss) October 1, 2018

What a fucking genius, eh? Good grief.

The EU, of course, also bans snus which has accounted for Sweden boasting the lowest smoking prevalence rate in the EU by a country mile.

So Bucher’s message appears to be “we want to stop people smoking so what we are going to do is ban and hide away all alternatives that smokers find useful”. And this daft woman thinks that is good policy?

Will no-one rid us of these troublesome - and utterly absurd - quangocrats? Can we leave yet?