pint & a fag please
Just the other day, and following their earlier decision to avoid any practical implementation of an effective minimum unit pricing of alcohol, the coalition has now decided to postpone the introduction of any law potentially governing the plain packaging of fags. In its collective wisdom it wants to see how the plain packaging wheeze, so to speak, rolls out (no pun intended) down-under in the Antipodes first. Clearly keen to hedge its bets, if a statistically significant number of Australian mites haven’t died of one of the many definitive smoking related diseases by the time they’re in their 70s, then Westminster’s in, for sure, non-negotiable. Probably. Not.
Tory MP, Mark Field went to extreme lengths to highlight that the forced introduction of such a policy would be an infringement of the right of tobacco companies to maintain and promote their brand. Obviously, he doesn’t want the industry to collapse, but get this, in the same interview he did admit that he didn’t want his kids to start smoking. No sh*t Sherlock. Just other people’s kids. Nice.
Having never been a smoker (as it’s killed way too many members of my family already) some would say I don’t really know what I’m rabbiting on but get this, a good pal of mine, a lifetime smoker and ex-British American Tobacco employee ended up in the position of principal lobbyist to the UK Government. He lasted less than a year in the job, when during the course of daily activities it dawned on him that smoking was addictive, the company were responsible for the shortening of millions of people’s lives, and hey presto the government of the day (any day that is) was complicit in the whole process as it was sooo dependent upon the tax revenue the industry generated. Aha. Hold the front page, booze & fags as a tremendous revenue source? Who’d have thunked it! He resigned…and gave up smoking.
