There's a chance that the Government, in its desire to assuage some Lib Dems and obsession with indulging Labour's health fascist tendencies, will include the introduction of standardised packaging for cigarettes in the forthcoming Queen's Speech.
Campaigners - some of the 425,000 plus who wrote previously to oppose this policy - are urging people to write to the Prime Minister - you can get details of the campaign at Hands Off Our Packs.
The reasons why? Well here they are:
1. There is no evidence supporting the contention that standardised packaging reduces either the uptake of smoking or overall consumption. Indeed, in the year since the introduction of plain packs in Australia rates of smoking have increased
2. There is clear evidence to show that standardised packing increases both the counterfeiting of cigarettes and the smuggling of tobacco. The beneficiaries of the policy are criminals not the public
3. The policy will lead to job losses in places like Bradford - the jobs designing, planning and managing a multiplicity of different packaging designs will be gone, replaced with a simple print job
So do write urging the Prime Minister not to introduce this egregious - and pointless - policy.
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