Monday 23 February 2015

The 99 per cent

When the UK government suddenly announced that it would be pushing ahead with plain packaging last month, some people wondered why it had not waited for the results of the public consultation to be published.

The consultation has now been published...

99% say no to plain packs

Westminster is facing increasing pressure to backtrack on proposals to introduce plain tobacco packaging after an overwhelming 99% of respondents to a public consultation were opposed to the legislation.

The results of the plain pack consultation, released last Wednesday, showed the government had received 137,000 responses on the issue.

This included 136,000 campaign responses from retailers, lobby groups and unions calling for MPs not to press ahead with standardised packs.

That's that mystery solved, then.

6 comments:

Christopher Snowdon said...

They did not want the inconvenience of being seen ignoring the will of the majority so they moved first. This sis a typical tobacco control tactic. Hopefully soon more will see the game that's being played before it is too late.

Christopher Snowdon said...

99%
I think this could be called a majority.
And how do we call people who just decide and don't care how those affected think about it?
Dictators.
And what happens to dictators?
Often something rather messy, when the Revolution comes.

Christopher Snowdon said...

This is nearly how it happened in Australia a few years ago,when the 1% changed the packaging rules here.The next year,remarkably,smoking rates had dramatically dropped.I look forward to seeing the same headlines in the UK shortly ❗ Some retailers had reported the opposite,an increase in smoking rates.Again,who is telling the truth❓

Christopher Snowdon said...

The democratically elected government should back down!

Christopher Snowdon said...

Who is telling the truth? We know it won't be the government! After all, they have to look after No.1 and cannot possibly be seen to be so gullible (which we know they are) for giving in to TC at just about every click of their fingers!

Christopher Snowdon said...

WE know they should, but heaven forbid they make themselves look weak and have to justify vast sums of money already invested in the plan! Just once in a while it would be so refreshing to have them hold their hands up, apologise and admit they got it wrong! If only they could see that by doing that they would actually gain a little respect from the vast numbers of people who have absolutely NO respect for them.