We’re Losing Revenue! Quick, Let’s Tax E-Cigs!

by Dick Puddlecote
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DickPuddlecote/~3/K7wVLaAENEU/were-losing-revenue-quick-lets-tax-e.html

We’re Losing Revenue! Quick, Let’s Tax E-Cigs! Could this be what it’s really all about?

Italian MEP Giancarlo Scottà tabled this extraordinary written question a couple of weeks ago.

The Creatures Outside Looked From Pig To Man, And From Man To Pig …

by Dick Puddlecote
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DickPuddlecote/~3/cjaWWIbnjcg/the-creatures-outside-looked-from-pig.html

The Creatures Outside Looked From Pig To Man, And From Man To Pig … Busy in Puddlecoteville again, and likely will be for the next few days.

However, after yesterday’s revelation that Labour despise the working man (and woman) so much that they will lie to deprive them of their meagre pleasures, I couldn’t help but notice this exchange in the commons yesterday.

Desperate Plain Packs Agitprop In The Guardian

by Dick Puddlecote
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DickPuddlecote/~3/ZN8syq61JTU/desperate-plain-packs-agitprop-in.html

Desperate Plain Packs Agitprop In The Guardian I haven’t fisked an article for a while, but this desperate guff from Tanya Gold in the Guardian is just so inept that it begs for it.

She seems to have no clue about the year long public consultation on plain packaging, or even the shabby evidence that prompted it. Here’s a perfect example.

Will The Coalition Be More Bossy Than Labour?

by Dick Puddlecote
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DickPuddlecote/~3/1UioYb_5ybg/will-coalition-be-more-bossy-than-labour.html

Will The Coalition Be More Bossy Than Labour?We’re still no nearer finding out if the incredibly inept campaign in favour of plain packaging will be successful.

If you’re not already aware, it’s been a farce from start to finish, so much so that I can only direct you to the Plain Packaging tag here for info as the instances of corruption, lies, gaffes, gerrymandering and idiocy are far too numerous to mention. Snowdon had a go at listing them in March but it’s akin to attempting to trap running tap water in a sieve.

How To Rig An EU Tobacco Products Directive

by Dick Puddlecote

How To Rig An EU Tobacco Products Directive

Take a good look at this woman. She is – according to tobacco control’s own claims – possibly the most dangerous European alive today.

It is Linda McAvan, the Labour MEP chosen as ‘rapporteur’ for the EU Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) which seeks to permanently ban snus and effectively render e-cigs useless. As rapporteur, it is her role to shepherd the TPD through its various stages of implementation. She is, as you might expect, a virulent smoker-hater and – I’m ashamed to say – British.

Scottish Anti-Smoking Groups Pay In Kind

by Dick Puddlecote
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DickPuddlecote/~3/d25N0BUu4co/scottish-anti-smoking-groups-pay-in-kind.html

Scottish Anti-Smoking Groups Pay In Kind Staggering stuff from ASH Scotland’s Sheila Duffy.

Ms Duffy said: “Quitting tobacco is the single best thing a smoker can do to improve their health. We do not support banning e-cigarettes as they could help many smokers to move to a less risky product. However e-cigarettes are produced by commercial companies, with a profit motive.”

Err, unlike those philanthropic non-profit producers of NRT her bunch promote relentlessly, and which regularly sponsor events attended by Duffy, eh?

Harm Reduction … For Smokers Too!

by Dick Puddlecote
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DickPuddlecote/~3/m0J0jy9M-ZM/harm-reduction-for-smokers-too.html

Harm Reduction … For Smokers Too! When e-cigs are mentioned on these or any other pages, there are always a few tobacco smokers who begin to feel rather uncomfortable. The recurring reason they give is that they fear voluntary harm reduction methods could prompt authorities to force smokers to switch in the future.

I was reminded of this on reading an article in the FT a couple of weeks ago.

Bar Staff Are So 2006

by Dick Puddlecote
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DickPuddlecote/~3/KFvjwIOqvX4/bar-staff-are-so-2006.html

Bar Staff Are So 2006 Via Jacob Grier, it appears that Washington DC is looking to include e-cigs in their general smoking ban.

In an interview, Alexander said e-cigarettes are being “used to usurp the smoking ban.”

“It is smoking, is an inhalant and it’s similar to smoking,” said Alexander, chairwoman of the Health Committee. “We don’t know what the ill effects of this are, and it’s still a bother to some people.”

Usurp the smoking ban? Similar to smoking? A ‘bother’? Is that what is defined as compelling evidence worthy of a comprehensive illiberal ban these days?

E-Cigs Banned On P&O Ferries, Avoid

by Dick Puddlecote
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DickPuddlecote/~3/B4UTlKtqmA0/e-cigs-banned-on-p-ferries-avoid.html

E-Cigs Banned On P&O Ferries, Avoid The latest company to exhibit their ill-informed ignorance over e-cigs would appear to be P&O Ferries. For the story, click to enlarge this letter produced to one of their recent travellers.

Czech Parliament may not pass ban on smoking in restaurants, health minister says

http://praguemonitor.com/2013/03/25/parliament-may-not-pass-ban-smoking-restaurants-health-minister-says

Note: I follow the news from the Czech and Slovak Republics with reasonable closeness. To call either of these places a libertarian utopia would be silly. However, they don’t seem to be run by certifiable lunatics. Corruption there is more financial than intellectual and moral. There is even some connection between public opinion and what the politicians say and do. So unlike our own dear country! SIG

Plain Packs Consultation Bias Busted Wide Open

by Dick Puddlecote
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DickPuddlecote/~3/ZM2_X785AJY/plain-packs-consultation-bias-busted.html

Plain Packs Consultation Bias Busted Wide Open Earlier today, Guido published a report on what we jewel robbers already know. That being the disgraceful shenanigans behind the scenes of the government’s consultation on plain packaging.

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:

It’s Not Junk When WE Do It

by Dick Puddlecote
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DickPuddlecote/~3/60D_jzPfG4I/its-not-junk-when-we-do-it.html

It’s Not Junk When WE Do It One day, the dictionary definition of chutzpah will simply carry a picture of Simon Chapman.

The “science” of e-cigarettes:gushing anecdotes from 11 self-selected vapers. This was actually published ascpjournal.org/content/8/1/5/…
— Simon Chapman (@SimonChapman6) March 8, 2013

He is referring to a study which correctly argues that e-cigs are a far better tool for quitting smoking than disastrously ineffective pharma products. You see, he hates e-cigs so very much.

Stir Crazy

by Dick Puddlecote
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DickPuddlecote/~3/uXLBUjlnOXg/stir-crazy.html

Note: There was a time when I might have asked if our rulers had gone completely mad. I accept that this kind of observation is now long-obsolete. Even so, has anyone in authority considered how Baz the Butcher is likely to respond when deprived of his Lambert & Butler? SIG

A Bad Day For Democracy And Scrupulous Government

by Dick Puddlecote
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DickPuddlecote/~3/OMK-kGZET2g/a-bad-day-for-democracy-and-scrupulous.html

A Bad Day For Democracy And Scrupulous Government It’s been an irritatingly busy day, or else I’d have been watching the EU’s Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) kangaroo court like Snowdon. Or, the ‘it’s not about health show’ as it could be better described.

How Politicians Will Likely Scupper E-Cigs, No Matter How They Are Finally Regulated

by Dick Puddlecote
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DickPuddlecote/~3/feqB8M0CdXc/how-politicians-will-likely-scupper-e.html

How Politicians Will Likely Scupper E-Cigs, No Matter How They Are Finally RegulatedThis is quite sinister and could well be our future.

Two bills recently introduced in Congress would substantially increase federal excise taxes on tobacco products, and probably allow the imposition of new federal excise taxes on e-cigarettes.

Taxes on e-cigs? Why?

Senate Bill 194 would:

Authorize the Treasury Department to impose federal excise taxes on e-cigarettes (also at a rate equivalent to cigarettes) if FDA deems e-cigarettes to be “tobacco products.”

OK, here’s the state of play. Pharma smoking cessation products like patches and gum are close to useless, their success rate has been measured at around 1.6%.

Dick Out And About: Filling In The Gaps

by Dick Puddlecote
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DickPuddlecote/~3/qlX0E_TEErc/dick-out-and-about-filling-in-gaps.html

Dick Out And About: Filling In The Gaps
Over at the IBT, I thought it was worth pointing out what the BBC’s Graham Satchell forgot to say in Monday’s report on e-cigs.

To read the article, click here or on the screen-capped image below.

E-Cigs: Follow The Money

by Dick Puddlecote
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DickPuddlecote/~3/gVg-cjRS2TM/e-cigs-follow-money.html

E-Cigs: Follow The Money With a tagline of “when caution can kill”, former ASH Director Clive Bates has written another very intelligent – and important – article on e-cigs and the unintelligent EU’s disgraceful plan to kill them off.

“E-cigarettes represent an amazing market-based, user-driven public health insurgency. From nowhere to €500m in Europe, the market is growing rapidly and already almost equals the market for NRT, according to the European Commission’s consultants (see chart and Matrix report p21)”

Little wonder, then, that big pharma are doing everything in their power to get them banned.

“Without anyone in the professional public health field doing anything and without spending any public money, smokers have been quitting, switching and cutting down using e-cigarettes.”

And that is why the tobacco control industry are also doing their utmost to heavily regulate them or render them ineffective.

It’s a simple follow the money exercise. Right there is all you need to know about the e-cigs debate. Remember it whenever you read or hear any of their rotten junk science.

It’s never been about health, you know.

Do go read Clive’s article in full here.

Give Your MP A Nudge For A Change

by Dick Puddlecote
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DickPuddlecote/~3/S3dhMD6UVC0/give-your-mp-nudge-for-change.html

Give Your MP A Nudge For A Change MPs have been merrily nudging you into conforming to their idea of how you should live your life for over two years now. Here’s your chance to nudge him/her back, and it’ll only take a minute.

I think we need to say things about these fellows

David Davis

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/p480x480/554557_10151488913732518_711477817_n.jpg

E-Cigs Continue To Embarrass And Create Ridicule

by Dick Puddlecote
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DickPuddlecote/~3/9kTk9ON3kxo/e-cigs-continue-to-embarrass-and-create.html

E-Cigs Continue To Embarrass And Create Ridicule There has been a lot of writing about e-cigs in The Times the past few days, this article being the best to illustrate my long-held view that they are a magnificent tool for pricking the huge bubbles of of hysteria around nicotine, so cleverly-constructed over decades by legions of anti-smoking scaremongers.