Policy Wonk Burns Misleading Plain Packaging Consultation
Setting up a policy consultation that doesn’t actually do any proper consulting seems to be a growing theme under Dave. A report by Rupert Darwall, the policy wonk who helped expose the Civil Service foul up over the Virgin West Coast train franchise, has laid into the Department of Health’s consultation on plain packaging. Darwall’s report finds:
- The consultation was deliberately framed to garner support for plain packaging, presenting policy-makers with a loaded question.
- Questionable evidence: no causal link between packaging and smoking.
- Department of Health admitted the consultation was biased but has done nothing about it.
- Consultation does not consider negative impacts such as reducing barriers to illegal tobacco.
- Overall the consultation creates a misleading impression that plain packaging will cut smoking.
That went well then. You can read Darwall’s report in full here…
I read the documents here: http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/
The tobacco companies’ own internal documents.
Packaging: http://na-saighneain.com/tobacco-index.html#Marketing_to_Young_People
Someone say something!
Something!
Cough!, in plain English?.
████ ████████ ███████ ███ ██ ████████ ██████ ██ █ ███████ ██
████████ █ ███████ ████ █ ██ ███████ ██████.
██ ███████, ‘ █ ███████ ██ ██’████████ █ ███████ ██ █████ ███████ █ ████████ !’
███████ ████████ █ ███ ████████ ██████ ████ , on Tuesday.
Thanks. The first time I have laughed out loud all day.
Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom
I’m astonishingly unsurprised and have nothing more sensible to add.
I do:
“Tutti frutti, oh rootie…”
About as sensible as anything policy wonks come up, truth be told…
I didn’t think that I believed that the anti smoking, anti drinking and anti sex campaigners had any real evidence to back up their proposals to make life miserable for the rest of us. I thought they relied on none of the politically correct numpties that pass for politicians these days not feeling able to say the the Emperor was naked.
However it is still breath taking when it becomes clear that they are lying weasels that load the evidence to make the case they happen to wnat to push at this point in time.
Apologies to the cat. I thought I should say something as he requested but it just kept pouring out.
It is interesting how a bunch of people who don’t like something can tell the rest of us to stop doing it, or else. Obviously their stance requires no moral or intestinal fortitude just a desire to make others miserable.
In the meantime those of us who just enjoy life are never bent on telling the misery guts and doomsters to do what we do. What on earth is wrong with a bit of hedonism?
Is that F1 bloke still shagging german dressed tarts?
Truth is that smoking is nowhere near as dangerous as they hype. Pipe smokers actually live slightly longer than non-smokers! And that’s despite being passive smokers as well.
I give up cigarettes every couple of weeks and sometimes manage to hold out for nearly an hour. Been doing that since 1950, not the giving up bit, it’s the tax that has resulted in that, but an addict for quite some time. People who believed the thoroughly dishonest statistics have predicted my early demise for decades. Difficult to point out their error as most of them are in the cemetery.
That’ll be because passive smoking is a mythical construct of the seriously deranged or publicly-funded holier-than-thou nag.
I’ve just worked out what the new BBC newsroom looks like – Virgin Atlantic check-in desk.
No, BBC looks like this:
He’s like me, I don’t flush either.
I always leave a mess for the next man.
Talking of shit, take a look at Polly’s latest bile ridden piece.
She is really loosing it big time. Never mind, Leveson cuts both ways – I look forward to the Guardian having to cough up for the batty old cow’s doodles.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/18/will-britains-press-repent-its-nasty-ways
Perhaps the press should play the politicians at their own game. As the new rules compel the print media to publish accurate articles/stories, they should refuse to publish any article based on official government/party press releases as it’s well known they are full of bullshit. Instead they should dissect every paragraph and expose the lies, half truths and dodgy statistics used in them. Same should go for public relations crap from so called celebs. RALLY print the truth and show every politician, political party and degenerate celebrity for the dishonest scum that they really are.
How long would the new rules last if that happened?
That should read “REALLY print the truth…..”
+ 1000
was that Blair’s infamous WMD?
Politicians are damaging to health. Should they be put in plain packaging?
Yes, otherwise known as “body bags”.
Perhaps while they’re still screaming! That’d be a larf.
Always funny when we do it…
Good day Engineer
Glad to see you back from the woods…
“Plain packaged and then sectioned” I would say
And preferably circumcised while you are at it
We are plain
What have the Britsh people done to deserve these c*nts?
Elected them, unfortunately. Though in fairness, a majority elected ‘none of the above’ by not turning up.
OH I SAY
I just do not know why Dave does not cross over to Labour ! I think that they should have had pretty packaging on the cannabis packs and then Dave could have possiblyl et us know if he used it or not in his younger days. He never did say one way or another and it is now a proven medical fact that to use cannabis can cause mental problems in later life, is this what is wrong one may ask ?
I thought he had
http://inforrm.wordpress.com/2013/03/19/news-leveson-cross-party-agreement-on-royal-charter-ends-phase-one/
the story so far
“Mr Jay’” has received his cheque from the taxpayer for £5000,000,
Thank you
He will complete the second phase for another £ million….
Evan Harris has left a very important response
Its that old Liberal chestnut
“Something must be done” “government must be seen to act” professional poloticians are simply professional bedwetters
Smurfitt wont mind,less colour to steam out at the recycling plant
Euro getting crucified at moment, no vote expected in Cyprus…
Cyprus Finance Minister apparently offered to resign.
- And perhaps some freshly printed Cypriot Pounds from de La Rue
Are we keeping a watch for RAF planes landing in Rio just in case?
No, but they will be flying around Frankfurt, rather than over it
And all those Russian mafiosi lurking around Larnaca with no cash but lots of automatic weapons.
I would prefer some real laundered Roubles myself
White as the driven snow of Siberia
When the plane lands the one million euros will be worthless.
Thanks, we’ll take 15 % of that.
So they finally found a use for the Euros that Gordon Brown sold 400 tons of gold for
The final coup de grace with those Euros will be when they become worthless.
At that point Mr Brown should be hanged.
If he does go would they be interested in a slightly used Gideon?
Gideon should take note. This is what we call honor.
EURUSD low so far 1.2864, let’s see where it lands. 1.27 range would be awesome.
1.15 would be excellent for the Euro zone in fact
It started at 1;00 if you are old enought to be out of short trousers
It would be good for exports. Part of the beauty of this strategy is that it is manipulating the Euro down in a non-inflationary way.
Also, discourages others from buying in.
EURJPY @ 122.41
The question is, will Greece or !taly bail next ? If Greece follows Cyprus towards Russia, the Euro for real is done.
Here is the EUR/USD 10 year chart for info
http://www.dollars.com/chart/EUR-USD?period=10y
Resurrection of the Euro. Holy Father, ’tis a miracle.
Here is the EUR/GBP chart over 10 years
http://www.dollars.com/chart.php/GBP-EUR?period=10y
Which do you prefer?
EURUSD sell off continuing, 1.2863 seems to be new low.
Ask that question again in a few days time.
I personally prefer the currency with slightly more than 10 years history.
Debate can be watched here. In Greek, no translation, but ‘F*ck Germany’ I think is easy to understand any language:
http://tinyurl.com/ckk5nym
More public sector failures.
Will anyone be fired for this incompetence?
For the sake of the children, we should set fire to all MPs. They are dangerous to health.
I’m cutting down on politicians. I now believe none a day and the world smells better for not going near the bullshit.
Hello Guido
I am taking to heart your advice about PR
Do you think you and Hawwy could advise?
Is your PR very expensive nowadays?
PS How should we attack the suicidal Dave the Rave?
I prefer Out of Africa myself
Great!, we can take the ring fenced £12billion “charity money” and use it in this country, after all charity does begin at home.
Better still, not spend it at all.
Dear Mr Johnson
The phrase ‘out of Africa’ could possibly (on a wet Thursday when we have nothing else to do) be construed as suggesting you have a preference for females / males of a dusky hue. As such it might be considered defamatory We have therefore decided to censor this to prevent you making this potentially defamatory comment about you
Office of the Government Chief Censor
Dear Mr Johnson
We are aware that the Chief Censor has censored your use of the phrase ‘out of Africa’.
Unfortunately and only after careful study over 3 bottles of surplus Krug from HM Government Wine cellar we have concluded that censoring the use of the phrase ‘out of Africa’ is in fact indirectly racist as it could infer that a preference for persons of a dusky hue is somehow inferior to a preference of people of a lighter skin colouration
We therefore now require you to use the phrase ‘out of Africa’in every article published by you
Equality Commission
Fink I’ll ‘avasmoke. Whataloada tosh innit?
Are you taking my name in vain again?
Have you climbed over our paywall?
Stuff your paywall. Nobody reads you anyway.
Modern research shows that stopping smoking at Auschwitz and all the others would have save countless lives.
Modern research,based on the latest advanced methods, seem to show that everybody alive today will be dead sometime in the future. We need more funding to confirm our findingd, though. And it would help if we could put in a few buzz words in the grant proposal, like global warming, climate change, etc., etc.
I presume Global warming is partly the responsibility of smokers.
Yes indeed. Oh yes.
Indeed – and the regional very unhealthy haze which covered the whole of south east Asia a few years ago was directly traced to people burning tobacco.
“Moving forwards, the collaborative research community anticipates a paradigm shift in current understanding of the death-experience, with stakeholders reaching out in highly innovative web-centric fashion to further leverage contemporary learning and enhancing value in a rich divergent manner. With multimedia content.”
That’ll be £20, please.
That looks familiar
You forgot “at the end of the day at this moment in time”.
Vote UKIP.
Your commenting to the wrong people, why don’t you do what Liebour do, sort out the postal voting.
If UKIP do well in the May local council elections, then the postal vote problem may be partly resolved.
if I was the cyprus I would get the russians to negotiate on my behalf
When we hear that the British bases are to be closed, that is the time when we find that Cyprus is negotiating with the Russians.
When you know that German banks have largely financed Russian development over the last 20 years
You know that the Russians will huff and puff but the Germans have them by the shorts
Especially seeing the capital outflow due to pillaging oligarchs
The Russians are your proverbial Paper Tigers
Cool, like a movie trailer.
Read this for excellent background on Russia/Cyprus etc
http://www.dw.de/russian-oligarchs-stung-by-cypriot-bank-tax/a-16683064
Taking the haircut could be argued to have been payment for US cutting NMD in central Europe:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/world/europe/with-eye-on-north-korea-us-cancels-missile-defense-russia-opposed.html?_r=0
But Russia clearly not seeing things that way.
Look forward to the next Merk3l / Put!n meet up, if Merkel is still around before the federal elections.
When I go to fill up the car, I can’t see the petrol but I still buy it. With fags it’s the same, whatever it costs, whatever the packaging, if people want the product they buy it.
By this measure Ozzie will soon be taxing the air we breathe. So kindly stop giving them ideas!!
I like a nice fag.
We keep you in fags FFS
I am sorry but you cannot write that without me checking it first
Do you have an O-Level in English too?
Am I surprised? The entire smoking ban programme was fraudulent, a catalogue of outrageous fabrications and half truths from puritan outfits like ASH and Labour busybodies like the ghastly Patricia Hewitt. Claims like
- occasional exposure to secondhand smoke is dangerous (simply not proven)
- ventilation doesn’t work
- heart attacks fell dramatically soon after the ban was introduced in Scotland
- pubs will not be affected by a total ban on smoking
plus 101 other lies that have virtually killed off the British pub as we knew it. Result – thousands of jobs lost, social hubs destroyed, and kids loose on the street getting legless and violent on strong booze where they used to be under the watchful eye of mature drinkers.
It has been a total fucking disaster – yet still they call it a “success”.
It stops people meeting in circumstances we can’t control. Job done.
Oh yes, I forgot the ultimate fraud – claims that a majority favoured a smoking ban in pubs. They didn’t – they favoured a choice, for instance separate smoking rooms.
Only when choice was eliminated did the result show a majority (as Rod Liddle put it, the choice between a total ban and having your testicles sawn off). This was another classic case of fraudulent “interpretation” of surveys by those determined to get the result they want.
If any of the anally rententive anti-smoking nazis knew anything about the history of tobacco marketing they would realise that from their invention until WW2 no one would buy or be seen dead with their fags in a packet. Cigarettes were bought loose or in tins and transferred to a cigarette-case appropriate to their wealth and station. Apart from a few products, branding was almost a negative as the nobs would hardly ever smoke a wild-woodbine, and a slob couldn’t afford Sobranie or Morland’s. I am already manufacturing a nice line in gold, silver and simulated politician skin cases-hold 20 or 30 king size–forward orders placed here please.
Well said and very true. As far as the consultation is concerned, the likes of Dick Puddlecote and Velvet Glove, Iron Fist have been all over it since Day 1. The best thing to do when reading about the tobacco control industry is expect that they’re lying and that whatever they are doing is fraudulent. You save time that way, although it does generally only take a few seconds to dismantle everything they say; even the most swivel-eyes loon doesn’t believe that smoke travels down electrical wires or causes global warming. Both of which have been pimped as serious ideas by ASH US.
Why don’t the Russians just convert it to an aircraft carrier and then we can all forget all this nonsense.
.
Or we could let the Turks ‘accidentally’invade the rest of it and see how they like being paid in Turkish Pounds. We could even offer them EU membership to take it off our hands
Getting there..
How about sending all the Greeks back to Greece and the Turks back to Turkey. That would leave an empty island for either the Izziwizzies of the Palliwallies to have as their own land. Two state solution solved and everybody is happy with their own piece of real estate. Tony would be proud of such a plan!
Guido is normally keen to stress which venal special interest is funding stuff (see Hacked Off, etc), but in this case fails to highlight that this study was entirely funded, sponsored and publicised by Phillip Morris International.
It’s only hypocrisy when it’s convenient, I suppose.
Matters not when it’s all true.
http://dickpuddlecote.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/how-to-rig-public-consultation.html
http://dickpuddlecote.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/how-to-rig-evidence-for-consultation.html
http://dickpuddlecote.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/how-to-rig-consultation-by-excluding.html
It’s not like they hid it very well.
Dick, I like the righteous concern with which you uncover biased commentators. Help me out, how unbiased would you score Philip Morris International on an issue likely to negatively affect tobacco brands?
With 15% of the global cigarette industry
And revenues of $76bn
And net income of $9bn
And half of the world’s biggest tobacco brands
On a score of 1 to 10, where 1 is not biased at all.
Yeah, just carry on ignoring the fact that the research is true in what it says. That’s the ticket!
Hypocrisy is a government which claims to be impartial but which actually ignores one side of the debate (article 5.3) and conspires to corrupt the other for its pre-determined ends.
I’m betting you might be ‘paid’ yourself on this display, ‘Anonymous’.
you didn’t answer the question
Shooting the messenger is no good. The question is: Are they facts or not? Is this the way the ‘public’ consultation was conducted. And, if so, how many previously were conducted in the same manner though I think we all know the answer to this last bit.
There was no need, Anon, your question was irrelevant. The author is a veteran at pointing out governmental procedure failures in many areas.
You, however, have still failed to read the document, haven’t you. Admit it, you daren’t cos you know it’s true.
The EU is famous for using our money to fund fake “charities” to lobby European governments for objectives the EU want to pursue.
Prohibitionists should be prohibited from taking in air and mediators should have their intake filtered by a solid rubber membrane.
UKIP template poster should have Nige downing a pint with a ciggy in his mitts.
Lib Dem poster should have Oaten downing a litre of “man-fluid” and a fag in his right hand.
Call me Dazed should be downing a bottle of whisky with a revolver in his right hand.
Eddy Silliland should be gicing Hugh a BJ with his right hand chopped off under sharia law.