Friday 12 July 2013

Fantastic Friday!

There are two campaigns in the sidebar to the right, who would have ever predicted they'd both be announced as successful on the same day?

In the morning plain packs was officially - and quite rightly - shelved, and while nanny statists were still whining like a 747 approaching Heathrow, minimum alcohol pricing was ditched in the afternoon. Cue the most hilarious hyperbole, gnashing of teeth, tearing of hair, and weapons grade shroud-waving ever seen from bansturbators ... and that's saying something considering they're ridiculously over the top on a quiet news day!

The BBC, of course, did its best to pretend this was the government equivalent of a football referee missing the ball blatantly bouncing over the goal line, but it's been very clear from news comments sections, Twitter feeds and Facebook discussions that both these policies were not popular, were ridiculed by the public and were making politicians look even more stupid than they were viewed beforehand.

Of course, there were the usual nonsensical claims of double-headed industry execs with red horns mesmerising the government as they liberally tossed millions of £50 notes at lobbyists, but - like tantrum-throwing children - flinging insults and blaming just about everything and everyone for their misfortune is what the public health industry have always done. So no surprise there.

Jeremy Hunt threw a bone to the pack of slavering, threat-laden public health mongrels on plain packaging by quoting a selective stat
“Of those who provided detailed feedback, some 53 percent were in favor of standardized packaging while 43 percent thought the government should do nothing about tobacco packaging,” Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said in a written statement to Parliament in London today. 
Surprising that he should pick that one when the real story of the day was how roundly the plain packs policy was rejected. You see, the figure Hunt provided to parliament was restricted to those who took time to formally write in and answer the 15 questions the consultation asked. Just 2424 of them (see page 14 here). As you can imagine, a significant proportion of those will be state-funded bodies or individuals whose job it is to submit such stuff.

A more significant conclusion to take from that soundbite is that over 1,000 ordinary people were motivated enough about the subject to go through the purposely onerous rigmarole of finding the consultation buried at the DoH website, and ploughing through it to formally register objection, many of whom - I am incredibly proud to say - fellow jewel robbers who forwarded their efforts my way by e-mail (I still have a folder full of 'em).

But that wasn't the whole story by any means. There were 665,989 responses in total (page 31) and this is how the overall picture looks. 


No amount of blaming Lynton Crosby or tobacco companies for putting pressure on politicians can hide the undeniable fact that the public - you know, those people a democracy is supposed to listen to - are behind this correct decision by a factor of two to one. It's that simple.

The tobacco control industry should take some of the same medicine they've been spooning out for years ... get over it, move on, the public have spoken.

In the meantime, it's Friday, the sun is out, and the health Nazis have received a well deserved smack in the chops. Crack open a bottle of your fave tipple, spark up a cigar and party like it's Friday 12th July! 



15 comments:

The Filthy Engineer said...

"is that over 1,000 ordinary people were motivated enough about the subject to go through the purposely onerous rigmarole......

I woz one of them.

johnd2008 said...

I see that the Jocks are still likely to go ahead with minimum alcohol pricing. If they do I might get myself a white van and start running it over the border.

Dick_Puddlecote said...

Makes perfect sense (and good money) ;)

RooBeeDoo said...

So woz I. The onerous part was trying to be polite. I think I failed slightly when I accused them of planning to commit theft, using taxpayers money to do it, which would make me an accessory and I wasn't in favour of that. Actually, thinking about it, we might of won in spite of my efforts ...

Dick_Puddlecote said...

I salute you, Sir. In total, I was sent 14 pdf transcripts of full responses from readers here, and many others commented to say they'd done so too on articles following a guide wot I wrote. If you assume that still more may have answered the questions without letting on, this little tabloid corner of the blogosphere certainly did its bit. :)

nisakiman said...

A welcome victory for common sense, even though it may be short-lived given the stupendous amounts of taxpayer money the Neo-Puritans have access to.

It would be nice to think that the politicians are waking up to the fact that 'Public Health' and it's fake charity hangers-on have been up to their eyes in skulduggery and charlatanism for years, but I'm not yet convinced of that. Nevertheless, it is certainly a step in the right direction.

If, however, the joyless ones have any say in the matter, the plain packs result will probably mean that there will be no more public consultations. The public just can't be trusted to vote the 'right' way, can they?

Dick_Puddlecote said...

A salute to you too. :)

Dick_Puddlecote said...

They all but ignore them now anyway. Labour have today said they will implement plain packaging if elected, so it wouldn't have mattered if 100% of the public objected. Hmm, I wonder why voter turnouts are so low?


On the other side of the coin, I reckon the Tories have just announced that the 2015 election campaign has started, and they're off to a head start. ;)

moonrakin said...

Caught apparently well known TV GP Sarah Jarvis in standard issue BMA control freak mode on R4 pm while driving this afternoon. When offered evidence she actually said IIRC evidence doesn't matter and trotted out the batshit bonkers control freak bile - what an advertisement for the medical profession .....

That said she seemed very steamed that she was being called out on the BBC where she obviously felt she controls the agenda and one could detect chronic "do you know who I am?" syndrome.

Quite good from 17:20 onwards

here http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qskw/broadcasts/2013/07

Junican said...

Ah! So if Labour say that they will definitely reintroduce PP, then they definitely will not.

smiffy01 said...

I'll bet they rubbed their greasy eyeballs with their grubby little paws a few times when they saw the fifteen questions answered by a charity - in the completely opposite manner to that expected DP! :)

Dick_Puddlecote said...

Good spot, Moonrakin. They have long since abandoned the truth, so it must come as a shock to be confronted with it occasionally. ;)

Dick_Puddlecote said...

I like your logic. :)

Dick_Puddlecote said...

I'll bet they did! A salute to you too. :)

Bucko TheMoose said...

I've been off work enjoying the sun for a week so I have read very little news. You just made my day with that one.
I'm off to a barbie now so I'll raise a couple of extra glasses in celebration.