Harrow East MP Bob Blackman calls for cigarettes to be sold in plain packets

1:40pm Friday 30th November 2012 in News By Emma Innes

Bob Blackman MP is calling for all cigarettes in the UK to be sold in plain packets Bob Blackman MP is calling for all cigarettes in the UK to be sold in plain packets

The MP for Harrow East has called on the government to introduce plain, standardised cigarette packets.

Bob Blackman wants the UK government to follow the lead of its Australian counterpart.

From tomorrow, all cigarettes in Australia will have to be sold in dark olive brown packets which are decorated only by health warnings.

Charities, including the British Heart Foundation, want the same legislation introduced here.

Mr Blackman, said: “Cigarette packaging is one of the last forms of marketing tobacco companies can still use to attract new customers.

“Australia is leading the way in stopping people from becoming addicted to a lethal and harmful product.

“If we care about the health of people in our community then we should introduce plain, standardised packs in the UK and help stop the next generation of smokers being recruited.”
 

Comments(5)

SeaBee says...
11:27pm Fri 30 Nov 12

It will certainly make it easier for the cigarette counterfeiters. Ordinary cigarettes are bad enough, the counterfeit variety take the levels of poison to a whole new level.

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Roadstar says...
9:16am Sat 1 Dec 12

These MPs that came up with this idea and hiding cigarettes in shops have no clue. I recon they woke up one day and had nothing better to do. But Bob Bkackman, I thought he had a bit of sense in him! How can he support the government like this. Do they actually know that cigarettes earn the best tax revenues for the country? Of course they do. So when the country is in a such state in the present day these devastating people come out with this rubbish.

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DimSum says...
6:29am Wed 5 Dec 12

The government must be daft, few nicotine addicts buy from legal retailers these days. All our lovely immigrants have sustainable businesses supplying addicts. The future looks bright for the addict as from 31st december tonnes more nicotine will be brought in by our new brothers from Bulgaria and Romania. Taxes go down, population goes up, NHS drowns, looking forward to the mini budget, more addicts turn to the black market no doubt.

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Harrow Rani says...
4:38pm Wed 5 Dec 12

@SeeBee - you are so right. We cannot assume that by covering all ciggies in identical packages, we are have somehow found the answer to stopping people from smoking. We have enough problems with lethal counterfeit cigarettes already, and as DimSum quite rightly points out, we have more to look forward to from Bulgaria and Romania. The government are the only losers in this game if they pursue this. The taxes they get from alochol and cigarettes cannot be clawed back from anywhere else. Good to see that Bob Blackman is still happy to back anything and everything that might keep the public voting for him to remain in politics.

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Paul from iharrow.com says...
5:18pm Wed 5 Dec 12

Arguments for and against smoking aside, don't be tempted into thinking this was something Bob Blackman dreamed up by himself... it looks like he just jumped on a passing bandwagon (arguably, an even worse thing to do).

If you google the entire sentence which starts with 'If we care about...' you'll find a whole host of MPs and councillors have exactly the same quote attributed to them.

Anyone seen an MP with an original idea?

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