Smoking is a filthy habit.
This is not the opinion of The Grocer. It's mine, and I would not be able to look myself in the mirror if I didn't preface my defence of the industry against Andrew Lansley's proposed new measures with that qualification.
But the health secretary's suggestion to put cigarettes in plain brownpaper packaging are not only out of keeping with his earlier utterances as the shadow health secretary; they are 'plain' crazy.
Ministers, along with anti-smoking campaigners, make these proposals with the best of intentions. But leaving aside their effectiveness (why don't they realise that the more illicit smoking appears, the more kids want to smoke?), they need to think through the consequences a little harder.
Lansley should take a look at the contents of a large, plain cement bag discovered by police in the back of a van in Surrey last week. Inside it, Shaleem Amar had been beaten to a pulp with a sledgehammer by his abductors after allegedly getting caught up in the illegal trade in counterfeit cigarettes.
Grisly scenes like this will be much more common if the legitimate trade in tobacco is driven underground, and by this I mean not only with the use of plain paper packaging, but also the ban on tobacco displays, on which an announcement is expected with publication of next week's coalition White Paper.
I would far rather see a (slowly declining) but legitimate trade in tobacco, that raises billions to boost the Exchequer's empty coffers, than drive more trade into the hands of organised crime. If the coalition wants to fund drug money, people smuggling and sex trafficking, these proposals would be like a blank cheque.
The tobacco lobby struggles to say this with any force because of its vested interest. In all conscience, I have no such conflicts.
This is not the opinion of The Grocer. It's mine, and I would not be able to look myself in the mirror if I didn't preface my defence of the industry against Andrew Lansley's proposed new measures with that qualification.
But the health secretary's suggestion to put cigarettes in plain brownpaper packaging are not only out of keeping with his earlier utterances as the shadow health secretary; they are 'plain' crazy.
Ministers, along with anti-smoking campaigners, make these proposals with the best of intentions. But leaving aside their effectiveness (why don't they realise that the more illicit smoking appears, the more kids want to smoke?), they need to think through the consequences a little harder.
Lansley should take a look at the contents of a large, plain cement bag discovered by police in the back of a van in Surrey last week. Inside it, Shaleem Amar had been beaten to a pulp with a sledgehammer by his abductors after allegedly getting caught up in the illegal trade in counterfeit cigarettes.
Grisly scenes like this will be much more common if the legitimate trade in tobacco is driven underground, and by this I mean not only with the use of plain paper packaging, but also the ban on tobacco displays, on which an announcement is expected with publication of next week's coalition White Paper.
I would far rather see a (slowly declining) but legitimate trade in tobacco, that raises billions to boost the Exchequer's empty coffers, than drive more trade into the hands of organised crime. If the coalition wants to fund drug money, people smuggling and sex trafficking, these proposals would be like a blank cheque.
The tobacco lobby struggles to say this with any force because of its vested interest. In all conscience, I have no such conflicts.
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